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Games Played in 2017

For the past 4 years I've been documenting every time I play a game and what I thought about it during that session.

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

A bit of a change from the last couple of years. In previous years I would to add a one word description of what I thought of the game at the top of each session. I will be changing how I notate that since if I don't enjoy a game I usually only play it once or twice. If I had mixed feelings or enjoyed the game that wouldn't really change much through out my time with it. So instead I will only note when my feels on a game have changed.

List items

Overwatch

Played: 1/1. Early Morning. PC Bnet. Enjoyed.
Just had a few game while listening to the FatT holiday special. Nothing particularly notable.
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Played: 1/3. Early Morning.
Had mostly awful games where I played awfully and did bad. :(
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Played: 2/9. Late Evening.
First time playing on that Oasis map. It's pretty cool looking. Had a few decent games mostly as Junkrat.
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Played: 2/10. Evening.
Just played a handful a games. Had mostly good ones I think. Symetra does seem real good now. I didn't play her, but man.
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Played: 2/12. Late Evening.
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Played: 5/29. Midnight.
Played while listening to a podcast. Tried the newest hero. Don't really get her very much to be honest. But only played one game with her. Had a really good game with Mercy.
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Played: 6/7. Evening.
Just had a few games while listening to the bombcast. Had a pretty good game as Mercy.
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Played: 6/7. Late Evening.
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Played: 6/10. Late Evening.
Had a ton of really awesome games with a variety of characters. Main Roadhog, but had a good D.Va and Junkrat games. Had a decent couple of games as T.Orb. Played a little bit of McCree, no idea how to play him well. Did alright as Parrah though.
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Played: 6/12. Late Evening.
Played some games while listening to a podcast. Mostly pretty good.
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Played: 6/18. Late Evening.
Nothing particularly standout-ish happened.
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Played: 6/20. Midnight.
Had mostly not great games unfortunately. Did alright my one roadhog game.
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Played: 6/21. Midnight.
new update? Roadhog now has 5 shots instead of 4. That's cool. I mostly played as D.Va and got a really nice ult off where I took out like half of their team.
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Played: 6/21. Early Morning.
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Played: 6/27. Late Evening.
Played some games as Tracer and did OK-ish. I think I could play more of her in the future. All my other games I played terribly or it felt like the stuff I was doing had been nerfed or something. It was pretty annoying.
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Played: 7/1. Early Morning.
Played while listening to a podcast. Saw the new moon map, don't quite get it yet.
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Played: 7/2. Late Evening.
Had a few good games I guess. Played around with a bunch of different characters.
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Played: 7/3. Early Morning.
Played a game as Mei and turns out she's a lot of fun...
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Played: 7/4. Late Evening.
Had one real good game as Mei. Still getting used to her. She's really spacing dependent though and that makes it tricky. Then had a really really bad game as Roadhog.
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Played: 7/6. Midnight.
Had a ton of really good games as my main stays and some just ok games as other folks.
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Played: 7/7. Early Morning.
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Played: 27/8. Early Morning.
Had a really good game as Mercy and found some tricky stuff to do with Junkrat on the one map.
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Unexplored

Played: 1/4. Late Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
Remembered this game was a thing and that it was alright. It continues to be alright. I'm sure there's a lot of cool stuff hidden in the updates, but all I saw was new and better UI. Some stuff is still a little confusing like how to use keys.
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Played: 1/5. Midnight.
This game is pretty unstable and crashes a lot, but the basic game is still pretty fun. Good podcast game. Trying to find the right weapon to use. I like stabbing weapons like the spear and short sword.
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Played: 1/5. Early Morning.
This game maybe needs a few more patches before I play it again. It's a bit to unstable right now. Also I don't like playing as the Wizard.
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Played: 5/6. Late Morning.
Watched a bit of Austin's stream and then HAD to play it. Seems there was a big update sometime 'cause there's a lot more cool stuff. The game seems better balanced too.
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Played: 5/6. Afternoon.
Basically just had some kinda awful and bad runs. haha. Ah well.
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Played: 5/6. Early Evening.
Having a much better run right now. Though I did lose a lot of my good weapons to the war god. Found better ones though. The thing I found was a note about an invincible enemy that may have its heart left out some where. That's the floor I ended this session on.
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Whispering Willows

Started: 1/7. Midnight. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
This game seems interesting. A little side view adventure game. Nice art and music. Its controls are a bit stiff and puzzles don't seem very ...existent yet. The story so far is pretty generic haunted mansion sort of stuff.
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Finished: 1/10. Morning.
This game is a good little horror adventure game. The puzzles could be way more interesting, but the story was alright. Nice art and all. Finished the game in about 2 hours according to Steam. Probably was a bit more than that though. I like it!
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Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Played: 1/7. Afternoon. 3DS. Enjoyed.
Needed something to do while at my girlfriend's while she was busy. This is what I had in my 3DS. I beat Legion. I don't have much else to comment about it.
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Elliot Quest

Played: 1/10. Morning. PC Steam. Mixed.
This game seems cute, but it doesn't have gamepad controls and the keyboard just don't feel right. Also it doesn't really explain anything at all. I don't think I'll continue with it.
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Started: 7/14. Early Morning. PC Steam. Neutral.
This game had some massive update recently that fixed a bunch of stuff with it. I tried it last year and basically found it unplayable so I thought I'd give it another chance. Seems OK. The controller works, but some of the menu stuff is a little old-fashion.
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Played: 7/15. Evening. Enjoyed.
There's some stuff I really don't like about this game, but am otherwise enjoying it. Beat the first boss and got the wind power.
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Played: 7/16. Midnight. Mixed.
Got to the desert. Got Double Jump. This game is mad mediocre and that's unfortunate. There's so many little things that just make it feel kind of bad. No menu wrap, item drops are completely random. So many little things that add up.
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Hellenica

Started: 1/26. Late Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
Saw this game pop up on the new releases list and decided to try it out. It is heavily inspired by games like Vandal Hearts and FFT. Fortunately it seems to lean more towards the Vandal Hearts side with one map looking very similar to a map from VH2. The combat is rad and very puzzle-y, but the coolest thing about it is the story branches, but you can go back and see the other options any time. This allows you to re-fight battles to do more of the optional goals. You keep your levels so that's cool. Kind of like Way of the Samurai 4.
It does seem like there is perhaps a "critical path" or at least "You should do this on your first play through!". So far all experience has gotten me is points to unlock abilities, but you can only have 2 abilities equipped at a time. I'm not sure if you ever get more health or deal more damage. It'd be cool if there wasn't any of that stuff. Doesn't appear to have equipment either.
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Played: 1/27. Midnight.
This game continues to be pretty good. I decided to stick to the right side of the story and have the 4 box art character. The story is alright. It moves. I wish there was a "skip dialogue" button and some better keyboard controls. Escape does nothing for example.
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Played: 1/27. Early Morning.
Got to the 7th Day. The one with the 6 circles on it. Apparently you have to go through just about all the story paths to actually continue from there. That's interesting, but a bit disappointing. And oh boy! was the last fight I had hard. Was only able to beat it with only the main character alive since she heals to full every couple of turns.
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Played: 1/27. Late Evening.
Going down a more central path now. I got to throw a lot of pirates off a boat so that was cool.
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Played: 1/28. Midnight.
Finished the Sparta path. The final map was considerable easier.
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Played: 1/28. Early Morning.
The path I'm on now is a bit strange. Went to Atlantis then to an Airship. Not sure what was a more clean path. Not sure if there was one. Picking up the other two party members was very awkward. Especially Brass.
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Played: 2/5. Late Evening.
The path I'm currently on has me dealing with Sisyphus a whole lot and that guy is a pain. I'm not too fond of the battles in this path. Too many enemies and each one feels like I should have 1 more person on my team.
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WitchWay

Started: 2/4. Afternoon. PC Itch. Enjoyed.
Saw this game on twitter. Decided to pick it up. It seems really cool and good so far. Sort of a Metroidvania meets puzzle game.
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Played: 2/4. Early Evening.
This game continues to be cool, but there are some little things about it that are annoying. Particularly the way the laser blocks control. I don't know why, but I don't like which button controls their rotation.
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Finished: 2/5. Early Evening.
Beat the game I guess. It just sort of ends. No super hard puzzle or anything. Just stops. You escape. That's it. Kind of underwhelming. I collected all the bunnies and artifacts. I was going to go back and get every Eye, but I found one that is impossible for me to get without resetting the puzzle and there is no way to do that without starting the game over. Figured there's more like that. Ah well. Still a pretty good little game for what it is.
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Cities: Skylines

Played: 2/11. Early Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
Felt the urge to jump back into this game. It seemed to have uninstalled all the mods I had, but has since added a lot of their functionality. I don't know if I like the town I'm building too be honest. haha.
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Played: 2/12. Late Evening.
Started a new city, but ended up not liking the map I choose. It has a river running down the center but no way for the two sides crossing without you doing it yourself and ehhh...
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Played: 2/12. Late Evening.
Restarted again. I like this map much better. It's cool. Thinking about how I'm going to make the city look real nice.
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Played: 2/15. Late Evening.
This city is going better. I'm getting to the point where I have all the high density stuff. I need to figure out a better solution for getting people around though.
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Played: 2/17. Evening.
Started building up my downtown area. Things are going real well. Starting to see traffic issue though.
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Played: 2/17. Late Evening.
I really have a nice major central city area now. It's sort of like if Seattle was Manhattan.
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Played: 2/18. Midnight.
Whoops played this til 3am.
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Played: 2/18. Early Evening.
Got my city to a metropolis. I'm surprised I'm having as little traffic issues as I am.
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Played: 2/19. Late Evening.
I love this game soo much. I now have an international airport, a space elevator and all the tiles unlocked.
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Played: 2/20. Midnight.
Was going to call it quits at 12:10, but then just kinda played for another hour... whoops.
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Played: 2/25. Afternoon.
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Played: 2/26. Afternoon.
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Played: 2/26. Evening.
This city is so big now.
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Played: 3/8. Early Evening.
Wanted to make a new map and city. Eventually scraped the map.
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Played: 3/8. Evening.
Found a map on the workshop that looked really cool but it has a shitty difficult starting area that I don't like. Bah. The early bits of this game are not as enjoyable as the end game.
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Played: 3/9. Early Evening.
Messed around with different new map. I love the look, but the high way placement is tricky.
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Played: 3/9. Late Evening.
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Played: 3/10. Early Evening.
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Played: 3/12. Midnight.
I'm not too sure about this map I picked. It's real pretty, but the logistics of the highway systems is a major pain for traffic.
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Night in the Woods

Started: 2/21. Early Evening. PC Itch. Enjoyed.
Only played a little bit of this. Nothing much happened. Got to the part where I fix the laptop. I like the mood a whole lot. I did real bad at the Guitar Hero mini game thing. My one critique is that the pause/option menu doesn't wrap and that's pretty annoying. Especially since you have to go through all the options to exit and save.
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Played: 2/22. Midnight.
Finished up the party and went to the mall. Still did terrible at the bass playing mini game, but as someone who used to play bass it kind of reminds me of what it's like when I would practice with people. That's kind of this whole game though. That nostalgia of disenfranchised young adulthood. That feeling of being too old to be a teen, but still not feeling like your ready to be an adult. If I could sum of this game it's "Man, being in your 20's sure did suck a whole bunch."
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Played: 2/24. Evening.
I fed the rats in the one building then I accidentally turned down the kid that hangs out on the roof when they asked to hang out. So I hung out with Bea and we had an argument. I'll say there was a lot more "realness" this session than in previous. It's less "happy go lucky" and that's cool. I'm glad to see that stuff come out.
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Played: 2/24. Late Evening.
Ended this session at the Library. The plot seems to be popping off now. Had a real good scene with the mom and some story beats. The 3rd ddr mini game is really fucking hard... I wish they let you practice on the bass in Mae's bed room.
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Played: 3/18. Morning.
Finally got back to this game. Just played a day of it. Hung out with a Germ and Mom, and then went to the graveyard. Spooky.
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Played: 11/19. Midnight.
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Finished: 11/19. Early Morning.
Finally got back to this game and finished it. Didn't realize I was so close to the end until talking to some folks about how long it was. Wish I had finished it back then. I do appreciate that nothing is really settled by the end, exactly. Like there is a plot that concludes but the mysteries are left mysteries and I like that. It's about the characters and not solving the mysteries of the world these characters live in.
I spent most of my time with Bae for whatever reason.
~~~
Hollow Knight

Started: 2/28. Midnight. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
This game seems really good so far. I have some minor gripes with it. You can't rebind the "inventory" button (playing with a PS4 pad, the touch pad brings it up instead of share,) hitting the pause button while paused does not unpause the game. Minor stuff.
I did find the map and map upgrades a curious design choice. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, because it seems so... unnecessary? Basically you don't start with a map, you have to find the NPC that gives it to you, which is fine. But then you also have the buy items that will update the map and show where you are on the map. The former only happens at save points and the latter must be equipped. It's different and added a bit of in universe flavor but I'm not sure if its... Well it could end up allowing for some real rotten situations where players are in an unmapped area just looking for a save point but have to wander around instead of using their map. Now if save points are common and well placed that won't be an issue. From what I've played so far save point locations are weird and kind of clumped together. I'll have to play more of it.
I do really like the aesthetic of the game even though the whole "grimdark" BS shtick is kinda out played. Bugs are cute. It's cute grimdark I guess. The game is well juiced too. You know exactly when you get hit.
There is something strange about the attacking though. You move back a little bit after every time you hit something. Which can lead to you falling off platforms if you're near the edge. I found the jumping downward attack to be really cool since you can bounce off enemies.
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Played: 2/28. Midnight.
Hrmm. There are things I don't like about the combat. Hurtboxes don't always behave in the way you think. Like you can be hurt while attacking in a way that feels weird. Getting hit sucks too. There's enough knock back/around that getting hit will usually put you in a bad situation. Tougher enemies are smart enough not to get into spots where you can easily hit them.
I also feel like I haven't gotten enough upgrades for how long I played. I have so much money but nothing to spend it on. It'd be nice if they gave me another thing of health or something soon.
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Played: 3/1. Midnight.
Did some exploring, found shops, beat a boss and got dash, then explored more. Now in a mushroom area. There's a lot of shops selling mostly trinkets. Still only have 5 health, but found another trinket slot. I'm enjoying this game more now, but I wish it wasn't so stingy with the upgrades. I've seen others around but I need wall jump or some other upgrade to get them.
Dying is kind of a hassle. It does the Souls-like thing where you have to run back to collect them. Only now a really easy enemy defends them. I just don't see the point. It's more of a hassle then anything. I guess it's incentive not to die but the nature of the combat seems to sometimes allow for BS deaths, like getting knock into acid, etc.
Still I like the world, general feel, and characters. I do kinda just want to play more of this.
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Played: 3/1. Early Morning.
Explored a whole bunched. Have some decent upgrades now. 6 health, a trinket that gives me soul when I get damaged, another one that allows me to dash a lot more. Some other good stuff. Not sure where to go now though. Went to the mantis village and got the wall jump ability, but I guess I just gotta wander around some more. Was thinking of saving up 1800 geo for the one thing that lets you see in the dark, but kind of forgot about it when buying trinkets. Ah well.
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Played: 3/1. Morning.
Now in the Capital. Beat some optional spider boss in the first zone that was pretty tricky. Now have my nail upgraded so it does a bit more damage. Enemies that were dying in 2 hits are now in 1, and so forth.
I have this charge up attack move that I always forget I have. I just never think to use it in combat at all.
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Played: 3/1. Early Evening.
Went exploring since I encountered some tough enemies. Found a soul upgrade but doesn't seem to add much really. Found a place called "Deepnest". Seems pretty brutal. I'm saving up for the 1800 thing and putting it in the bank. I bet I were to grind in a location I could probably have enough, but I don't really want to do that.
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Played: 3/1. Late Evening.
Went through a sewer area and fought a dung beetle boss. At least now I know what the rancid eggs do. Also saved up that 1800 and bought the light item. Now it's time to try it out.
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Played: 3/2. Midnight.
Found a way into the Crystal Mountain area. Found a boss guarding a bench and die to it. Ugh. The check points are so far too. I am feeling like I'm missing some sort of helpful attack or something. I could rearrange what trinkets I have equipped, but any of the bosses I've encountered are so far away from any other benches I've found.
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Played: 3/2. Evening.
Found some catacombs area, went into a dream, and now have the Dream Nail. Fought some ghost mini bosses. One in the catacombs, the Traitor, he was pretty easy. Then one in the swamp area, she was easy, but kind of a shitty boring boss. I was expecting them to be really hard, but nope! I know there's a bunch around so I'll probably clean them up.
I really like this point in the game. No direction, just explore and you'll find some sort of progress. Really what I like/want from a Metroidvania!
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Played: 3/2. Late Evening.
This game is getting really good. Just fought a rad boss called something like "Soul Lord" and got the slam move. Also fought the ghost of the mushroom place and it was probably the hardest ghost I faced. Now I have just under the requirement to get the next thing from the lady that gives you ghost stuff. I don't want to stop playing, but it's 11pm and I haven't eaten since getting home from work.
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Played: 3/3. Midnight.
Got the super dash. It's interesting in that it doesn't damage enemies. I'm now going back through a bunch of areas to find new stuff. Stopped in the swamp area to do a particularly tricky (and kind BS) down attack-hop thing you have to do across a bunch of enemies that move up and down. They move fast and its hard to go to the next one when they're at their highest. Ah well. I'll try again when I'm not so sleepy.
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Played: 3/3. Early Evening.
Just kind of explored around looking for all the places I can't quite get to yet. There's a lot of them. Decided to do the other side of the city of tears or whatever it's called. Found a "dark" upgrade for my ground pound, so that's cool I guess?
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Played: 3/3. Evening.
Found the upgrade for the blast attack so that's cool. Went really deep and found some sort of orange slime/bug boss that I couldn't beat. Trekked back out to the city, killed a ghost singer thinking she'd give me the essence I needed to get to 700, she didn't. whoops. Decided to fight the Mantis Lords and after doing some CRIME I was able to beat them.
My strategy included having the charms that spawn flies with soul, gain soul on damage, and gain a ton of soul on hit. It worked real well. Basically just had to dodge, get hits in when I could, and the flies would do the rest. Really cool fight.
Then when I went to get my reward I accidentally killed the friendly gatekeeper. Whoops.
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Played: 3/3. Evening.
So I'm going though the Deepspawn or whatever it's called and I come to another one of those downward attack bounce rooms that probably just has optional stuff in it. It's super wonky and the checkpoints are bull shit. The bouncing doesn't feel right. It's not consistent. What's especially annoying is when you touch a wall then hit jump and he just slides down the wall for some reason. I've failed so many times because of BS like that. I don't get it.
The area itself is really cool though.
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Played: 3/4. Afternoon.
Was able to beat that challenge. Got another pip of magic. Explored more of it. Found the tram pass and beat another ghost. I also found this optional boss that the set up to was super cool even if the actual fight was kind of easy. It got me more Pale Ore, which I immediately left to go upgrade my nail. It's now level 4, the spiral nail. I also was able to buy the final charm slot from the charm salesman. I only need 10 more charms then I can get their blessing.
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Played: 3/5. Afternoon.
Got to the end of the deepnest. Looks like I can face the one boss now. This area has a lot of BS that I don't like.
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Played: 3/5. Evening.
I'm kind of stuck. I don't know what I need to activate that one Dreamer I can get to in Deepnest, but I also don't know where to go. I found Kingdom's Edge and the arena, but I can't find the map guy and much of the area needs double jump to progress.
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Played: 3/5. Late Evening.
Got double jump (it's kinda wonky), the mark of the king, and shadow dash. Got the final charge attack from the swamp place. Found the map in Kingdom's Edge after exploring it completely, even did the Hive area. Tried to do the 2nd challenge in the Arena, but it's real tough. Probably going to do the rest of the City now that I can access it. I'm assuming I'll get the ability to swim at some point too.
There's a nice bit of plot that has been happening now too.
~~~
Played: 3/6. Midnight.
SO... uh... I killed all the Dreamers. I didn't realize there wasn't going to be a boss fight. haha. Welp. Now I'm exploring the Queen's Gardens. I'm assuming I'll get some sort of swimming ability or something since all the areas I can't access are blocked by water. I also found a new spell that I was probably supposed to get much earlier. Whoops.
The 3rd dreamer area was cool. That Jelly fish boss was annoying, but also cool since the one NPC was helping you. I dipped into the Black Egg area but didn't go far at all. Also... the first area is a bit different haha.
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Played: 3/6. Early Evening.
Finished up the Queen's Garden. Went to the Stag Nest. Started to look up some things I missed like the acid swim ability. It just was through a door I thought was blocked by acid, haha. There's still a lot of stuff I should have do I think. I want to try to finish up the arena, get the best weapon, get all the charms, that sort of stuff.
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Played: 3/6. Evening.
Got all but 3 Charms. Beat the Collector and am missing 4 grubs. Got the Pure Nail, don't think I'll be doing the final arena challenge since you don't get anything but an achievement I think. Going to be heading to the Hive then Crystal Mines next.
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Played: 3/6. Late Evening.
Collected all the charms except for the last one. This was a really trying session. I'm not super good at games and had to really push myself to pay attention to stuff like the crushers in the Crystal Mines. Right now I'm trying to fight the Lost Kin. I think I'm slowly getting. Funny thing is that I'm using a very similar strategy as it is. I've got my helpers spawning in and am using the stab dash. I have to remember to focus on the ghosts and play it safe. Only jump over its downward attack when I'm in the corner. its fucking ghosts though. They're super annoying. Still I just gotta take my time.
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Played: 3/6. Evening.
Beat that guy. Stinky is a good charm. Then did the White Palace or whatever it was called. That place is a little too brutal for my tastes, but I was able to get up to the top and get the 2nd part of the final charm.
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Played: 3/6. Late Evening.
Got the Void Heart and I wish I had done some other things first, ah well. I also got all the charms now so now I recharge Soul at benches. That's nifty and would have been useful much earlier, ah well. Next I think I'll go to the black egg. I don't really have much interest in getting the last 2 mask pieces.
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Played: 3/7. Midnight.
Beat the first phase of the final boss and got that ending. It was fine, but predictable. I can't seem to get the 2nd phase down though. It doesn't help that all its attacks deal 2 damage instead of 1 and it doesn't really give you any breathing room to heal up. I'm going to keep at it though. Also I hear there is a secret 3rd ending if you wear the mushroom charm and talk to the mushroom NPC. Gotta try that.
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Played: 3/7. Afternoon.
Tried to beat the true final boss again, but it's too tough. Well it wouldn't be so tough if the game didn't make you fight the fake final boss each time. That boss is easy. Even laughable easy. But after 1.5 hours of trying I was only able to get to phase 2 of the real final boss and at 1 hit point. No breathing room in between phases either. And the boss deals double damage that can knock you into other things that deal damage. It's a huge difficulty spike that I don't feel is handled well. If it dealt normal damage or you didn't have to waste your time fighting another boss before it. Whats worse is the amount of RNG in the fight means sometimes you'll just get screwed over because there was likely no way you could dodge something or know what could have been coming. You can't just learn the patterns or anything. You literally do not know what's coming next.
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Played: 3/7. Evening.
Got the upgrade for the upgraded up spell, and was getting to the 2nd phase but still couldn't beat this boss. I think I am done with this game.
~~~
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Started: 3/13. Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
With all the BotW talk I was thinking about getting it, but then I remember I had bought this game on sale for when I had a more powerful computer. Turns out it runs really well even on older PCs so I decided to finally give it a shot. It does run fine. First thing I did once I got control in the dream was jump off the balcony to my death by accident, second thing was that again on accident.
Didn't play too far in. Just tried Gwent. Won first round then lost the second some how and the 3rd instantly. I didn't really get it. Whatever. I'll probably not play much more of that and just mainline the story for the most part. I'm playing it on the "just the story" difficulty.
I've read a bit of the books and this game already is hitting me over with things that are basically "hey! HEY! remember this from the boooks?!"
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Played: 3/13. Late Evening.
Did some more of the main quest and some side quests. The controls are still real clunky and the audio is really quiet, but it does run really well while still looking real good.
It's not really pulling me in though.
~~~
Played: 3/14. Evening.
There certainly is a lot of wonkiness to this game and I don't think I'll ever be a fan of "flower picking" as a mechanic, but I do like the writing.
Had a major issue with missing part of one quest though. Didn't see the body hanging in the well and couldn't progress.
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Played: 3/14. Late Evening.
Finished up the Griffin stuff. Explored around the map a bit. Partly want to explore more but will probably just move on.
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Played: 3/15. Early Morning.
Continued with the main quest. Now in Venan. Explored a bit before moving on.
~~~
Played: 3/18. Early Evening.
Met up with a lady mage that I think I remember from the books. Not sure if she appeared in the other games though.
~~~
Played: 3/18. Late Evening.
Finished up the main quest for the Mage lady. Now I have a quest from her to go talk to some ghosts. sounds rad.
Still can't stand the movement or how looting works. When you can loot something is really wonky. All the gameplay stuff is super wonky and kind of mediocre. Glad I'm playing it on Easy.
However I've still had some difficult encounters. Things haven't just been mashing but ah well.
~~~
Played: 3/19. Midnight.
Finished up the quest line with Keira. Ended with her going to Ker Moran or however it's spelled. I wonder if the ghost lady will show up again. It'd be cool to finish things with her.
~~~
Played: 3/19. Late Evening.
Finished up the swamp quest. Played as Ciri very briefly. Then did some random quest that lead to meeting Letho from 2. I sent him back to Ker Moran as well.
~~~
Mass Effect: Andromeda

Started: 3/21. Midnight. PC Other Platform. Enjoyed.
Still in the start area, but I like it so far. The first thing I did was check out the options menu and there's a lot of really cool and interesting options like audio dynamics level. Subtitles can be set in multiple different places. Though not in language.
The character creator is a bit lacking, though not so different from the other games. The game plays fine too. My dad and mom look nothing like my character though. Maybe they're adopted. Still poking about on the planet looking for option stuff. I really liked the scene where you're ripped for you drop ship. That was pretty rad and intense.
~~~
Played: 3/21. Early Morning.
Am now at the Nexus. For all the wonk this game has some decent little moments. I like the way the ended the starting area. Looked through the menus. Ugh... the crafting system looks like it'll be balls.
~~~
Played: 3/21. Early Morning.
Just did some stuff around the Nexus. Mostly just chatted with folks.
~~~
Played: 3/21. Morning.
Completed some of the side stuff like the sabotage mission and the early SAM stuff. Then went to get the Tempest. Haven't left yet.
Also I think I encountered a bug where the skin color of my character has changed? But I can't tell if maybe it was the lighting.
~~~
Played: 3/22. Midnight.
Started on Eos. Can do some of the optional stuff now but I think I'll wait til I complete the story stuff there.
Also I spent a real long time on the ship getting my Ryder's outfit right and talking to folks. The menus on PC are a bit... well they were designed to be interfaced with a gamepad for sure.
The Nomad feels a lot like controlling the Mako for better or worst.
~~~
Played: 3/22. Early Morning.
Finished up the main story stuff on Eos and am now doing the side stuff. Ended up on research and a lot of the mods sound super cool and I hope they synergize well. If I can make my assault rifle shoot homing sticky grenades then woohoo!
Also PeeBee is the worst.
~~~
Played: 3/22. Morning.
Spend some time back on the ship just talking to folks and stuff. I don't fully understand the crafting system. I guess it expects you to buy a lot of mats since you get soooo much money, but I haven't had time to really mess with it.
~~~
Played: 3/22. Early Evening.
Mostly just did stuff on the Nexus. Made a few new guns with rare things. Nothing sure if I like them in battle though. The effects are a bit underwhelming. I'll have to continue to mess around with them though.
Had a "I like you" scene with Suvi that was super adorable!!
~~~
Played: 3/22. Evening.
Now exploring the Ice planet with Jaal. Not sure I really like him in my party. Still not really sure who I like the most to have around. Probably Korgranpa and Verta. But I don't really like any of the biotics and don't like doing biotics myself. So hrmm...
~~~
Played: 3/23. Early Morning.
~~~
Played: 3/23. Morning.
Did the raid on the khet base. Mission took too long though I probably shouldn't have started knowing I was going to need to leave for work soon. Next I'm going to do the vault there, then I should have enough to place an outpost.
~~~
Played: 3/23. Early Evening.
Did the vault on the ice planet. There was a door I couldn't figure out how to get into, ah well. It was probably just some loot.
I found a really rare shot gun at some point and I was trying it out. It kills just about anything in two shots. SUPER high damage. Definitely keeping it around.
Now I'm kind of inbetween things. Going to talk to the one guy on vidcom and then do some random other missions. I don't know. Kind of too much too do right now. I'll probably go to the ice city though. Gotta find out what's there.
~~~
Played: 3/23. Evening.
Just did some stuff on the ship and Nexus. There's so much stuff... I think I'll focus on the Asari Ark for now though.
~~~
Played: 3/24. Early Evening.
Fought a big fucking Remnant Dragon Squid and then did the next story mission where it's relieved that the khett are when I thought they were. What a twist. haha.
Got to the boss then and it killed me in a single-hit move. Boo! I was doing alright against it too.
~~~
Played: 3/25. Early Morning.
Finished up that story mission. When I got back to the ship I encountered a wonderfully hilarious bug. It seemed to spawn two of each of my crew members in different areas, maybe because I didn't talk to them all between the other story mission. So I had two Dracks hanging out in the kitchen. When I went to talk to Vetra in the bunk, it warped me back to where her private discussions are. It was wild. I love shit like this. Hopefully it won't break the game completely though.
~~~
Played: 3/25. Morning.
Mostly just walked around Aya talking to folks. Did some Nexus stuff as well.
~~~
Played: 3/25. Late Morning.
~~~
Played: 3/25. Afternoon.
Did just about everything on Eos, finally met some of the exiled people. Then did the ice city mission and that did not end how I thought it might. Hopefully having a weird ancient AI with SAM is a good thing?
~~~
Played: 3/26. Afternoon.
Started to do Haverl missions, and oh they expect you to come here much early, huh?
It's an interesting area. No car!
~~~
Played: 3/26. Evening.
Finished up what I can do on Haverl. It was nifty. Hope more stuff opens up there. The whole bit with the "these hate you, but you gave them this thing, now they like you" thing was pretty dumb.
Also did more of the "Ryder family secrets" stuff. There's some intrigue there. That's good.
~~~
Played: 3/26. Late Evening.
Pushed ahead with the story a bit then did Liam's loyalty mission. It was cool I suppose. Definitely felt very TV show sci-fi though.
~~~
Played: 3/27. Early Evening.
Did the story stuff on Kadaar, but then left to go make a shotgun and triggered a bunch of cutscenes on the ship. I don't have the mats for the shotgun and I'll probably go check out that other stuff.
~~~
Played: 3/27. Evening.
Did the Asari ark mission. It was ok. Just okay. Had a cool ending. Don't get why people were on the asari pathfinder's case about her choice though. Seemed a bit forced.
Then did a mission about a lady having a super contagious illness. It was interesting, but not really well done. And the scripting broke for the dialogue at the end. Ah well. New planet to explore!
~~~
Played: 3/28. Early Evening.
Did another vault and some of the firefighter mission. It's nice that they tied something back to a DLC from 2.
~~~
Played: 3/29. Evening.
Finished up that firefighters mission. Super anticlimatic. Bah. Then did Drack's loyalty mission. It was pretty cool. Best one I've done so far.
I am definitely cooling on this game. I'm not sure how much more I'll play it.
~~~
Played: 3/30. Evening.
No I won't do all the mission on Elaaden. Proceeds to do most of them. I think this is the best planet of the 5. All the krogan stuff has been cool. There's that cool fucking worm thing. Not the height of the series, but a high of this game.
~~~
Played: 3/30. Late Evening.
Did the vault. It was ok. I had a bug where I fell off and then it respawned me in the nomad, so that was fun and cute.
~~~
Played: 3/31. Evening. Mixed.
Pretty much did everything you can do on the desert planet. Man those last missions and the choice to with the krogan is really poorly done. I'm probably going to finish up Kadar and then do all the loyalty missions but I don't think I'll be doing too much of anything else any more.
~~~
Played: 4/2. Afternoon.
Did pretty much everything else on Kadara. It's the weakest planet I think. Also the one mission with Reyes to go back to the tempest and read his e-mail might be busted so I'm not sure I can continue that.
Also the APEX menu is super buggy, more and more, and I don't think there's any benefit to checking that stuff anymore.
~~~
Played: 4/2. Late Evening.
Finished up Kadara for now. Last mission there is "on hold". Did the turian stuff and vetra's loyal mission, both were not super great. I kind of can't wait to be done with this game?
~~~
Played: 4/3. Late Evening.
Made an outpost on Kadara and am now doing the missions that I think will eventually lead to the loyalty missions for PeeBee and Jaal. Not doing anything else in the meantime other than clearing out quests I've already done and just need to go talk to people. I kind of just want this game to be over.
~~~
Played: 4/4. Evening.
~~~
Played: 4/4. Late Evening. Enjoyed.
Did all the loyalty missions, Peebee's and Jaal's were both really good. Then did the Finding the Archon Mission and that one was also really good. Then had a scene with Drack in the medbay that was also really good. There's actually some really good stuff in this game all the sudden... Maybe I should start telling people to stick to the mainline stuff then.
~~~
Played: 4/5. Evening.
Finishing up the secondary stuff. Meeting crew places, etc. Some decent scenes. Now doing the Tracker quest which is actually pretty interesting from a story prospective.
~~~
Played: 4/5. Late Evening.
Finished up the Ryder Family Secret's mission, yeah that's probably the best stuff in the game even if the ending bit with the Mom is a bit cheesy. Cool to see how it connects to the other games. Wonder how things will finish.
Did one last secondary thing involving some spy shit. It was ok. Wonder if it'll ever actually play out.
I think I have just one more story mission then I'm done. I hope.
~~~
Finished: 4/6. Late Evening.
FINALLY finished this. This game is too long and has too much fluff. It deserves all it's criticisms, but I generally enjoyed my time with it. I enjoyed the ending. Never did the movie night thing. I'll probably end up getting any DLC that's released for it. I guess next too Persona 5...
~~~
Broken Age

Finished: 4/1. Early Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
My girlfriend and I finally got around to finishing this game. Part 2 is much tougher than part 1. We had too look up some stuff here and there, but was able to figure out the last puzzle by ourselves. The ending was ok, I guess. Kind of just ends with some stuff hanging. We'll have to watch the documentary at some point.
~~~
Stellaris

Played: 4/7. Early Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
Decided to pick up the two expansions and oh boy this game got it's hooks back into me. The expansions seem cool. Nothing super duper interesting has happened in my game yet. I'm next to two other civs, one is a bunch of religious military folks the other is a hive mind. I'm trying to get friendly with the hive mind since they pretty neutral towards me. I've got a pretty good thing going so far I think. Oh there is some super powerful ancient pirates in the one system so... I don't think I'll be able to fight them until much much later.
~~~
Played: 4/7. Evening.
~~~
Played: 4/7. Late Evening.
Everything was going well, but then the one civ attacked me and I did not have the funds or ability to defend myself. RIP. Starting a new game now. haha.
~~~
Played: 4/7. Late Evening.
Had to restart again since I got in a bad starting area. Now things are going better. I was basically isolated from everyone until much later. Bit unfortunate as I'm playing a highly militaristic civ now. Ah well.
~~~
Played: 4/8. Midnight.
Discovered a big chunk of the other civs. The folks to the south like me for some reason. The one's to the west don't. I think If I build up my military I can take them. Maybe. Still expanding.
~~~
Played: 4/8. Afternoon.
~~~
Played: 4/8. Early Evening.
Man for having a military focus I sure can't seem to catch a break in conflicts. Everything I seem to do doesn't seem to actually help me win at war. Bah. I think I'll just abandon that game and start over again. hrmm...
There's also a super large empire coming to consume me anyway.
~~~
Played: 4/8. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 4/9. Midnight.
So I tried again to make an evil military focused group that liked slavery and got utterly wiped out by one of the advanced races. I should maybe not include those if I'm going to try this route. Bah.
~~~
Played: 4/9. Midnight.
~~~
Played: 4/9. Early Morning.
Started over again. Slightly altered game plan. Still going as militaristic. Still losing even if I have the bigger numbers. I think I should learn to lure out their fleets. Maybe that's the issue.
Anyway. This game I'm making friends with with fallen empire and doing pretty well keeping to myself. Seems a lot of the civs are pacifists which is interesting. My resource management is going much better. I kept most of the game with just 1 science and 1 construction ship.
~~~
Played: 4/9. Late Morning.
~~~
Played: 4/9. Afternoon.
The war is going very well. I thought I would be screwed since I was sandwiched between two weak powers that had a defensive pact, but I've been able to beat them both pretty easily. They are like flies.
~~~
Played: 4/9. Afternoon.
~~~
Played: 4/9. Early Evening.
Won that war and then had to deal with doubling size my empire and with a ton of unrest. Was able to work around things a bit, but also went after the other civ. Won that war too, but during that one of the planets from the former civ revolted successfully. Now I'm going to go squish them.
~~~
Played: 4/9. Evening.
Started war with the tiny southern civ. Didn't realize they had a defense pact with my long time rival.
~~~
Played: 4/9. Late Evening.
That war was interesting. It was on two opposite sites of the galaxy and I had to jump back and forth between them. They just didn't want to concede either. Almost immediately after getting victory over them the fallen empire I surround decides it's time to reach its former glory. Here I'm, controlling basically half the galaxy, hoping I'd have time to lick my wounds and quell some rebellion. Nope! I'm not sure how I can deal with the Awaken Empire. I did take the one perk that let's me deal 33% more damage to specifically them, so maybe I'll have a fighting chance. I have no allies though. Not like they'd be able to stand up to those guys any better.
This is game is gooooood.
~~~
Played: 4/10. Evening.
Welp! So... The war with the big guys went real bad and I had to just concede a lot of stuff to them, but right before that the two other large empires decided to attack me. Sheesh...
~~~
Played: 4/14. Early Evening.
Decided to start a new game with a more peace bent. This time with a massive map. I wanted to try hyperspace but unfortunately accidentally set the thing to warp drive only. Hrmm...
I may restart though I have liked the little emergent story that has popped up so far. There's pirates but also some weird cult that show up that I had to deal with.
~~~
Played: 4/15. Afternoon.
Restarted again this time with the correct settings. Playing a pacifist civ and am surrounded by militaristic ones. Shit. Trying to expand enough so I can appease them with mineral trading.
~~~
Played: 4/15. Early Evening.
Welp... that one was going really well but then an ally decided to attack something which provoked their ally who attacked me and I was not prepared to deal with that at all. RIP.
~~~
Played: 4/15. Late Evening.
New game. playing on a huge galaxy with 20 other civs. Only encountered 2 fallen empires on the opposite sides. No one else. It's spooky.
~~~
Played: 4/15. Midnight.
Ok. So this game is going SOOOOO much better right now. I'm pretty pretty much not near anyone even still. I found a whole bunch of other civs and they pretty much have gotten all their wars and stuff out of the way, so now I can jump in and be friends with them all. I just need two unity upgrades so I can get federations and prosperity.
~~~
Played: 4/16. Evening.
This game has been very very peaceful and I have had a lot of room to expand.
~~~
Persona 5

Started: 4/8. Late Evening. PS3. Enjoyed.
Just started. Didn't even get to the first day of school. Named my character "Kanta Akiyama" since it means something like "Beautiful/desirable, autumn mountain" and that's silly, and I like it. Was going to go with some dumb/terrible mash up of my name and a japanese words, but no. I like this better.
For now though, I keep thinking about playing more Stellaris, so I'm going to go do that.
~~~
Played: 4/9. Late Evening.
Just played up to the scene on the roof. I feel this game's intro isn't as interesting as 4's. It jumps more into it. I like the flash forward stuff. But the stuff where you go into the dungeon pretty much right off the bat felt kinda weird in away I can't really explain at the moment. I guess it's a lot less set up. Combat seems alright. It's interesting how it's not really a menu. I guess the other Persona games were like that but I don't remember. It was really surprising how the shadows are all classic SMT demons though. Pixie, Pyro Jack, Incubus. Cool. Though very different from the previous games. Playing it on a PS3 seems fine too. Game looks good on my old ass TV. Had to mess with the TV's settings a bit though. it looked a little blown out.
~~~
Played: 4/10. Late Evening.
Played up to the first friday. Yo this game is real good. It goes in heavy and hard, and that's pretty cool. Reminds me a lot of Life is Strange. Also the cat is great. I love how they're hidden in a lot of the school scenes.
The system additions are real good from the previous SMT games. Fast Travel is a very welcomed addition. The dungeon crawling seems real cool but I haven't gotten too far into it.
~~~
Played: 4/11. Midnight.
The way this game pulls from classic SMT is pretty interesting in the context of the Persona subseries. This game, to be reductive, is kind like what if Life Is Strange and SMT: Classique had a baby, but also it's a light stealth game. I'm digging it's everything.
I just played up to the first save point in the first dungeon. Excited to see where it goes but I have work tomorrow... today.
~~~
Played: 4/11. Early Evening.
Started with the after school and dungeon. Ambushing is super easy. I wonder if it'll get tougher later. Probably.
~~~
Played: 4/11. Evening.
About half way through now. Really like the dungeon crawling and combat. It's streamlined but not dumbed down. Really interesting so far. MP management is certainly the key though I'm still going to see how far I can push.
Asking for money from battles seems to be a good way to earn a lot of cash. I'll probably start looking up what to ask for each enemy to see if they can give me anything good other than muscle drinks and devil fruit. SP items are always welcome. I might buy some crappy ones just in case.
~~~
Played: 4/11. Late Evening.
Second half the first dungeon was much tougher. Couldn't quite finish it.
Another thing: I love that you can read your books while on the train to school, it's such a great detail.
Also, Mara (and some other usually high level demons) appears really early in this game.
~~~
Played: 4/12. Midnight.
Beat the first dungeon. The structure of this game and it's boss battles is interesting. Then I finally cleared the room and now I have a plant that raises my kindness.
~~~
Played: 4/12. Late Evening.
Got to the point where we need to find our next target. Named my team "No Good Deed" since it sounded thematic appropriate and also like a j-rock band name.
~~~
Played: 4/13. Midnight.
So now I can go into Momentos. It makes sense they'd have a mechanic like this since Palaces disappear after you complete them. I've also have had a lot of trouble increasing my knowledge. I've answered all the questions right and have studied here and there but am still at level one. But am at level 2 with most of the other stats. hrmm...
~~~
Played: 4/13. Early Evening.
Played up to where I've met the next target and have been to the palace once. Kinda wish it gave me a bit more freedom to do other stuff though. Though I had to study a bunch for the exams, but could have used that time to do that Momentos side quest. Ah well.
~~~
Played: 4/13. Late Evening.
Did what I could so far of Memontos and the Museum. I really don't like how they're all causal and jokey about having Ann pose nude while she clearly finds it uncomfortable. It's really bad taste on the writer's part. Especially since her arch earlier was partly about how she doesn't like how she feels used for being attractive.
Other than that, I feel like I may be a bit over leveled, as the game is pretty easy. But I do have a lot of experience with the series. I didn't mention this before but I LOVE the fast travel system and improved fusion stuff. It's so great.
~~~
Played: 4/14. Midnight.
Getting pretty close to being able to place my calling card for the second dungeon. I do like that you can jump out at check points to go back and fuse. Now if only there was a Velvet Room button in while in them.
Running a little bit low on the old SP, but I have a decent stock of items. I'm really happy with the persona I have fused so far. the new nuclear and psy elements as well as the light and dark damage dealing attacks are interesting.
~~~
Played: 4/14. Evening.
Finished up the 2nd dungeon. The boss fight was a lot less interesting, but ah well. Now finally getting into the grove of doing social stuff.
~~~
Played: 4/14. Late Evening.
Finding it difficult to find placed to drastically raise my social stats. Particular guts. Maybe I should have been hanging out with the nurse more but I thought I needed it to be higher. ah well.
~~~~
Played: 4/16. Late Evening.
Went through a bit of Momentos and then did the school trip. Then HOT POT.
~~~
Played: 4/17. Evening.
A lot happened here. I can go to Shinjuku now and got the best stuff for the plant. Makoto is now in my party and she seems super rad. I tried the batting cages for the first time and am real bad at it. I'm getting my social stats to 3 about now.
~~~
Played: 4/17. Late Evening.
Going through the 3rd dungeon. Just fought what I think was the mid boss. Oni and Oni-like enemies are really easily dealt with if you use status effects. Wish I had remembered that during that boss fight. Ah well.
~~~
Played: 4/18. Midnight.
Completed the 3rd Dungeon in one go. Oof. I don't recommend that. I had to use pretty much all my SP items. Now just to send the calling card.
My persona are super powerful now it feels. I've gain so many levels too.
~~~
Played: 4/19. Early Morning.
Finished up the 3rd dungeon and then did a bunch of new social links. I need to get money to start the fortune girls, but I had enough knowledge to start with Makoto. The teacher's is a bit strange. Ended up doing some stuff in Momentos. going to keep going through there til Joker is 29 so I could do the next justice fusion as I already have everything else I need for for it.
~~~
Played: 4/19. Morning.
Tried to do more social link stuff mostly. I need to go into Momentos for fortune and I just got my charm high enough to talk to the shogi player. I should probably start making coffee to get ranks up with what's-his-name.
~~~
Played: 4/19. Late Morning.
Oh yeah, I should have been spending more time making coffee. Ah well. I met the shogi player and got Ann and creepy website kid up to Rank 6. The teacher s. link is very very awkward. haha.
~~~
Played: 4/18. Early Evening.
Got Mashima to 7. God that guy is a fuck up, teen site admin. Then did finals.
~~~
Played: 4/19. Evening.
Did more of Momentos. It's 4th layer is starting to actually get tough. I was only able to make it down to the safe area before I decided to go back. I wanted to start the fortune teller s.link but it through me into a bunch of story stuff. Apparently the Boss likes to adopt kids.
I really don't like the days where stuff happens during the day time and you can't do anything at night but sleep. Especially since there are days when if you do night stuff it just forces you forward. What's the point? Let me at least do stuff in my room.
Also I heard talk of a video game console you can buy, soooo....
~~~
Played: 4/20. Evening.
Started summer. So much stuff to do now. Yeesh. Didn't have time to make more lockpicks haha.
~~~
Played: 4/21. Early Morning.
Started the 4th dungeon. It's interesting how different its set up is to the others. I apparently am already higher level than most of the enemies. Haha oops. The enemies also seem pretty weak in terms of abilities too. But they can panic and run away causing the alarm rate to go up. I also did a lot of fusing and got some pretty rad persona now.
~~~
Played: 4/21. Late Evening.
Still going through Fubata's Palace. Probably coming close to the end. It's cool but the puzzles are kinda dumb.
~~~
Played: 4/22. Midnight.
Finished the 4th dungeon to the point where I can send the calling card I think. Gosh it's rough, like emotionally. Now hanging out with some folks before I finish it up.
~~~
Played: 4/22. Early Morning.
Finished the 4th dungeon. The boss was super cool. All the Futaba stuff is cool, though her outfit, well mask, is pretty silly. All the scenes immediately after were real cool too! Having the nurse show and everything. Rad! Well... now to wait.
~~~
Played: 4/23. Early Morning.
So much social linking. All the characters in this game are cuties and I want to hug them.
~~~
Played: 4/23. Morning.
More s.linking. Got to rank 7 with the Sun. It's pretty good.
~~~
Played: 4/23. Evening.
More s.linking then Mementos. Got all the quests done in there, but it's raining so I'm gonna hang out a bit more to get the rare treasure ones I think.
~~
Played: 4/23. Late Evening.
Progressed the story a bit. One thing I don't really like is the way people talk about Fubata right in front of her, like she's not there. It's pretty fucked.
~~~
Played: 4/25. Early Morning.
Did more s.linking! Maxed out the Sun. Really liked that one. Then did DA BEACH. I really like the scenes with Fubata and Sojiro. I also finally got Sojiro to rank 4 and can make curry now.
~~~
Played: 4/27. Early Morning.
Progressed a bit with the story. Can now s.link with Fubata and got Mishima to rank 9 and Takemi to rank 7. I hope can can go into Mementos before the school trip. I got like 4 things I can do in there.
~~~
Played: 4/29. Early Morning.
Did a bit of s.linking. Then Mementos. Got so many major things in there to do. Didn't quite get all of them since I wanted to do some fusing.
~~~
Played: 4/29. Morning.
Got Death to rank 8 and started the Tower s.link.
~~~
Played: 4/30. Morning.
Started the 5th dungeon. It apparently it tough for a lot of folks, but doesn't seem too bad so far. Did a ton of fusing too.
~~~
Played: 5/1. Early Evening.
Still going through the 5th dungeon. Nothing super interesting about it so far.
~~~
Played: 5/1. Evening.
Almost done with the 5th palace. Sent the calling card and just at the boss. I heard a lot of bad stuff about this dungeon and it was fine. Kinda easy actually.
~~~
Played: 5/1. Late Evening.
Beat that boss. It was probably the least inspired boss of the game. Nice story bit at the end there though, I guess. Then did more s.linking. They really want me to do the mementos stuff haha. Need to do more s.linking though.
~~~
Played: 5/2. Morning.
More s.linking. Futaba's scenes are kinda cute. Apparently fortune telling can quickly progress s.links so I have to look into that.
~~~
Played: 5/2. Late Morning.
Did some mementos stuff and then FINALLY was able to do Ryuji's rank 6 or 7 scene. Also Sojiro's scenes are real good.
~~~
Played: 5/2. Afternoon.
Story has advanced. The reveal who is the 6th target is real good. It's should have been an obvious twist, but it was done really well. I'm super curious how the 6th dungeon is. Looks like I'll be in story hell for a while though.
~~~
Played: 5/3. Afternoon.
More story and s.linking. Apparently I may not have enough time left in the game to get everyone to rank 10. booo. So I just started using a guide to try to get everything as quickly as possible.
~~~
Played: 5/3. Early Evening.
Stuck in mostly story hell. haha. There's a scene where Sojiro finds Futaba's calling card and it was real good.
~~~
Played: 5/4. Afternoon.
Started the 6 palace. Shadow Sae is... surprising. Decided to do more s.linking first. Got Tae to rank 10! Will get fortune 7 then I should be able to get everyone to rank 10 easily. Ann is almost to 9. And I got max Charm now so I can finally start talking to Makoto again. Just need to max the other four but I think that should be easy to do. Proficiency is next so I can start hanging with Haru. Still not sure who I want to have Joker date. Makoto seems the most likely, but Star, Fortune, and Haru are cute. Though Fortune isn't a higherschooler so that's a bit creepy.
~~~
Played: 5/7. Afternoon.
Got Makoto up to rank 6 and then Chihiya or whatever Fortune's name is to rank 7! So now I can easily get everyone to rank 10 hopefully. But first I'm going to do Palace 6.
~~~
Played: 5/7. Evening.
Started Palace 6 proper. It's weird and in parts kinda bland. I don't like the music. The gambling stuff is silly so far. But I'm leveling up super fast.
~~~
Played: 5/7. Late Evening.
Just passed the 100 hour mark. Almost through this dungeon. Also I am within spitting distance of getting rank 10 Strength. Just need to level one persona up one level.
This dungeon has been OK. Probably better then the 5th.
~~~
Played: 5/8. Midnight.
Got to the point where I can send the calling card, but I need to wait a few days. Until then I guess I'll do more s.linking. I got Strength to 10, so now I can do a lot of super high level fusing, but I need money for that. so hrmm...
~~~
Played: 5/8. Late Evening.
So much S.linking. Now I can hang out with Haru and her stuff seems pretty cool. Wish it was sooner. I got pretty far in with Ohya and got to rank 10 with Ann. I want to go into Mementos next, but others still want to hang out. Part of me wants to wait because I know other confidants will have missions there, but I think I may anyway.
~~~
Played: 5/9. Midnight.
Did 3 of the Mementos quests and then more s.linking. I stopped the day before having to send the calling card. I'm not fully sure if I'll be able to get rank 10 with everyone though.
~~~
Played: 5/9. Early Evening.
Finished up the 6th Palace and am now in story hell. It seems like it'll replay the entire opening. haha.
~~~
Played: 5/9. Evening.
Well that was like a 2 hour cutscene that was horribly contrived. haha. They really couldn't figure out how to bring it altogether, eh? I wish they'd drop the whole "Young Detective is the villain" stuff. It was too obvious that Akechi was perhaps not a good guy. The pancake scene, which they love to flash back to, made it clear from the get-go that he knew about the metaverse already. I guess they expected you to forget about that? But I was thinking Akechi was a villain pretty much as soon as he was on the screen. They don't do a good job in making him out to be anything else. Even his list of abilities makes it pretty obvious. Oh fuck, that asshole has one of my SP Adhesive 3s!
~~~
Played: 5/9. Late Evening.
Ok started the 7th Dungeon. They just kinda kick you out of it for no good reason. I don't get why. Maybe it's really short?
I did like how all my s.links texted me to see if I was alright. That's cute.
~~~
Played: 5/16. Midnight.
Did some s.linking but decided to just jump into the 7th palace. I'm not really a fan of it's design so far. Got the 1st letter. At least the story is coming together.
~~~
Played: 5/16. Early Morning.
This palace is pretty lackluster. The rat bits a cute I guess. HOWEVER! I got Black Frost! so yay! He's my favorite!
~~~
Played: 12/16. Afternoon.
~~~
Played: 12/16. Early Evening.
OK finally came back to this game after months. Immediately faced with a swim suit scene. SIGH. I also completely forgot how to play this game. Got through much of this dungeon, but then got ambushed in a dumb way and wiped out by some Titinias. Bah.
~~~
Played: 12/20. Late Evening.
Made good progress in the Ship. Now to the back deck. Man, I'm finding enemies here often run away after I demand money from them once and that's annoying. But I actually really like the way this dungeon is designed? A lot of nifty circular design. I don't mind the mouse stuff yet.
~~~
Played: 12/21. Midnight.
At the Side Deck. I feel there is so much more too this dungeon and I can see that's what folks don't like about it. I think I need two more letters. My MP situation is getting a bit rough for Joker, but I have some full mana items. I'm still relying on this one Persona that has both repel phys and gun on her. She still makes random battle much more easy to deal with.
~~~
Played: 12/23. Midnight.
Got to the Cleaner mini boss and got RNG'd to death. I think I'll have to do some more fusing to get better persona or something. We'll see. I really want to be done with this dungeon though!! It's so long.
~~~
Played: 12/24. Afternoon.
Fuck Akechi. But I made Abadon and they rule. Absorbs phys, guns, and curse.
~~~
Played: 12/24. Early Evening.
Finished the Cruise ship? That was quite the long boss battle. Had to use a few of those restore-all SP items. I wondering if I accidentally went passed the point of no return. If so, whoops!!
~~~
Played: 12/24. Evening.
Doing some S-linking and Momentos while listening to the Beastcast.
~~~
Played: 12/24. Late Evening.
Decided to go with Matoko as the love interest though I was thinking of Haru or the Chess gal, and everyone goes with her, but she just feels correct? Like it makes the most sense narratively? I highly doubt I'll get everyone to 10, but it'll be close.
~~~
Played: 12/25. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 12/26. Midnight.
Spent almost the whole time going to what I could of Mementos. I have so much money and now have Satan on my team.
~~~
Played: 12/26. Early Morning.
Got Sojero and Yuseke to rank 10 and am trying to get as many as the others up there, but I don't think I will unfortunately.
~~~
Played: 12/27. Early Evening.
Got Ryuji to rank 10! Found I need more knowledge for the chess lady. Think I won't be able to get her up any further unfortunately.
~~~
Played: 12/27. Evening.
Got the Tower to rank 10 and I think that's all I'll be able to do. Really wish I could get Haru there, but I think there'll be a bunch of story stuff soon.
~~~
Played: 12/28. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 12/28. Evening.
Maxed out my stats though looks like I ran out of time and am in the final dungeon. Messed up and thought I didn't have a persona with Magarudyne when I did. Whoops. I'll probably do a little bit of grinding to make sure I have some really sweet persona by the end.
~~~
Dead Cells

Played: 5/10. Early Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
This game touts itself as a "metroidvania roguelite" and yeah sure, it's that and it's pretty cool from what I've played so far. I had a pretty good run with a shield and lightning whip, but man the bosses are tough/not great or interesting.
~~~
Played: 5/10. Evening.
The game seems to get tough after I got the vine rune. There's a couple of places I can go, but I can't really make any headway in them. I wish you kept some of your cells on death and the elite enemies weren't such a pain. Or if carrots dropped more frequently.
~~~
Played: 5/10. Late Evening.
Got to the black bridge on one run. Should have been able to beat the boss, but made a dumb mistake. I've had mixed luck on getting healing items and sometimes you just die. Boo. Maybe I shouldn't be so greedy though. I think my favorite combo is the throwing knives and whip.
~~~
Played: 5/11. Late Evening. Mixed.
I had a good run, but died on the boss of the bridge again. I think I'm done with this game for now.
~~~
Played: 5/17. Late Evening. Enjoyed.
~~~
Played: 5/18. Midnight.
Had a really long session while listening to some podcasts. I was able to beat that boss and I got the other early rune. I found some pretty cool new equipment like the lightning spell and heavy crossbow. The zone after the boss is really tough though.
~~~
Played: 5/18. Early Evening.
Went through the toxic sewers, turns out they don't really lead anywhere interesting or new. There is a timed gate in there though. Gosh those are hard to get too.
~~~
Played: 5/18. Late Evening.
Explored a bit of the other areas. Seems like there's a very clear set of what zone goes where and that after the bridge it's just a straight line. That's a bit boring. But it is early access. Also there's nothing much special in those timed gates after you get there for the first time. Boo. I think I'm done with this for now.
~~~
Played: 5/19. Early Morning.
Played a bit while listening to the Beastcast. I have all the health and cash upgrades. Died while having like 50+ cells. bah.
~~~
Played: 5/22. Midnight.
The Assassin's Dagger is awful. I should really stop playing this game until they offer some update to it.
~~~
Played: 5/23. Midnight.
Was able to get to the Graveyard for the first time and oof. Got some cool new gear though and was running heavily into bleeding.
~~~
Played: 5/23. Early Morning.
Had a very short run through the hard path, but I did unlock the burning mace and I could see that being nice with certain builds.
~~~
Played: 5/24. Early Morning.
~~~
Played: 5/24. Morning.
Trying to go though the prison depths to unlock new stuff, but I literally have never seen the drops. Bah. Also the game now crashes when I try to enter it in my current run. Ah well.
~~~
Played: 5/24. Late Morning.
Was able to get to the graveyard again and unlocked the clusterbombs.
~~~
Played: 5/25. Midnight.
I was having a really good run but I got stunlocked by an elite and it's lackeys, bah!. The build would have carried me too the final boss I'm sure of it.
~~~
Played: 5/25. Morning.
I was able to unlock the Great Bow. It seems OK but not as nice as some of the other bows. It could probably use greater range and more ammo.
~~~
Played: 5/25. Late Morning.
Tried to unlock some of the other speed stuff, but couldn't.
~~~
Played: 6/3. Late Morning.
Tried the new update. Didn't find anything new though.
~~~
Played: 6/3. Early Evening.
I didn't have beta enable and wasn't seeing the new stuff! haha. Now I do and it all seems cool. Fire is probably too strong though. Also I hate how they have the upgrades organized now. They seemed to remove sorting by type for some reason. I don't know why they would. Anyway I have a good run going but decided to stop since the game started to seem a little laggy. Am at the graveyard. Hopefully this will be the run where I beat the boss.
~~~
Played: 6/3. Evening.
~~~
Played: 6/3. Late Evening.
Had a bunch of mixed runs. I did get to the boss but couldn't beat it with my build. Have one now that I think will do much better.
~~~
Played: 6/4. Afternoon.
I was able to get up to that boss, but I have a terrible time dodging it's tentacles, bah!. Then I tried to run to the mid boss to get the timed door, but died looking for the exit to the ramparts.
~~~
Played: 6/4. Evening.
Had a bunch of runs that kind of just when bad. I don't know what I'm doing wrong against the boss. I must not be dodging early enough though it feels like it should have. Bah.
~~~
Played: 6/7. Evening.
Played one run, couldn't really get into it.
~~~
PUBG: Battlegrounds

Played: 5/12. Late Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
Broke down and bought it. Played one game. Got 7th. Was just as much fun as watching. I got a matrix coat, then drove a boat, then found some stuff. Then killed a guy, then almost died in the blue field, then found a busted buggy. Then almost killed too more guys, then died in the quarry. It's pretty good.
~~~
Played: 5/14. Late Evening.
Played some duo with a guy from the Waypoint discord. He knew a lot and I learned a lot. We never did super well, but it was suuuuper fun. There's something really good about a game where you spend 10 minutes getting equipment then die in 6 seconds and still think it's super fun!
~~~
Played: 5/17. Late Evening.
This game is more fun with other people. I had a few games but nothing particularly stand outish.
~~~
Played: 5/19. Evening.
Played some with some group. Had one good run where we came in 6th.
~~~
Played: 5/19. Late Evening.
Same group. I had a run where we went to the starting island, got some stuff. Then held some guys in a building for like 5 minutes until my partner died trying to get them. Then I stole their jeep and drove around for like 5 minutes trying to hit some dudes. Killed only 1, but then died when my car exploded.
~~~
Played: 5/20. Early Morning.
Did a solo run where I survived for way too long. So I just got into a car and was trying to drive over people. Got 1 kill but then got my car stuck and a guy walked right up and shot me. haha.
~~~
Played: 5/22. Midnight.
I had a game where I landed where the circle eventually tightened too, but then the "host lost connection"! Bah, and I got a good kill in that match. Ah well.
~~~
Played: 5/24. Late Evening.
Had a duo session. The best we did was our last match where I got two guys and a car with a couple of grenades. It was great! We only got to rank 6 but still!
~~~
Played: 5/25. Early Morning.
Tried playing with another guy. We just could not catch a break.
~~~
Played: 5/25. Early Morning.
Played a one match solo. Got to rank 14! I didn't really find anything good and was always in a bad or lackluster position, so I'm surprised I survived that long.
~~~
Played: 6/24. Midnight.
Hopped into a few games with some folks. It was soooo laggy I could basically do nothing. :(
~~~
Mighty Gunvolt Burst

Started: 7/4. Early Morning. 3DS. Enjoyed.
This game seems pretty cool in general. It still has a lot of bad BS, like an over reliance on instant death traps, but it generally plays pretty well and I like the customize feature. I'm playing as Gun Volt. He's abilities don't seem super useful outside of his butterfly girlfriend mode. Also the menus are fucking annoying and poorly done. I really wish Nintendo require rebindable controls. Also, I'm not too sure about the grinding aspect of this game, but it doesn't seem too bad unless you want to 100% it. Which I'm certainly not going to do.
~~~
Played: 7/4. Early Morning.
I got all but one level cleared from the levels I can see. I found most of the stuff in each level, but there's still lot that I haven't found. I wish the elements had a visual effect and explanation if they actually do anything different.
~~~
Played: 7/4. Early Evening.
I guess I'm in what you would consider the Wily stages. I don't really see the point of some of the weapon upgrades, like charge. I really wish I could find the ones like full auto and 5 shot.
~~~
Played: 7/4. Late Evening.
Got to the refights and hrmmm.. I think I'll need to go and find more items. booo.
~~~
Played: 7/7. Early Morning. Mixed.
Y'know what? I don't think I like this game. I don't think I like having to mash on the 3DS or the menus. Or how little damage the weakness bonus gives. It's just not that great. I think I'm not going to play it anymore.
~~~
Children of Zodiarcs

Started: 7/20. Early Morning. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
This game seems alright. Very rough around the edges though. No menu wrap, no rebindable controls, weird little unpolished cutscene stuff. Basic gameplay seems pretty cool though. I like that there is a diverse cast so far, even if they're all pretty archetypal.
~~~
Played: 7/22. Midnight.
Got to the point where I can now do skirmishes. This game continues to seem cool. Though I'm not sure what the point of having both dice and cards is where one or the other would probably have been fine. Particularly the dice. If you could just select the action you wanted instead of cards that would probably get ride of some of the potential downtime of spending turns drawing new cards, but I haven't had to do that too much. So far both mechanics have interacted in interesting ways though, so it's not really a complaint. I don't really understand how exactly what dice are used gets determined. Particularly the blue dice. Combat has been fairly easy so far, but I can already see how it'll get quite tricky later.
~~~
Played: 7/22. Early Morning.
Had one story mission where it separated the party, and had one big boss man on my side fighting much higher level enemies. There was a bit of an exploit where I could level my main to gals up by attacking the higher level baddies from a place where they couldn't get me. I got like 2 or 3 levels off them. Unfortunately the one guy wasn't in that battle and didn't gain any XP.
Then I tried an Elite Skirmish... those are real tough. And apparently they disappear if you reload? booo.
~~~
Played: 7/23. Late Evening.
Had a couple of cool missions then one really bad one where I had only two guys versus like 20 and the map had a lot of tight areas and award versatility. It really showed the limits of the card system where I was losing cards way faster than I could gain them.
Also, apparently the invert y option inverts the x...
~~~
Played: 7/27. Evening.
Got the next party member. Robot guy. They seem cool far. The game is getting tough now and I'm guessing it wants you to grind a bit.
~~~
Pyre

Started: 7/29. Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
Played with my girlfriend just to after the first rite. We both enjoyed it.
~~~
Played: 7/29. Late Evening.
We did two more rites. Got an imp friend, and a bard. We both continue to enjoy this game. The "combat" is taking some getting used to. Not so sure about the controls. I keep forgetting I can jump. Might see about rebinding them.
~~~
Played: 7/30. Late Evening.
Played further. this time without my girlfriend. Just faced off against the wyrm knights. I really like the charm of this game and am certainly enjoying it more than Transistor. I kinda want a Ti'zo plush. They're real cute.
~~~
Played: 8/2. Late Evening.
So much plot!! Played with my GirlFriend and we met Mr. Sandalwood, taught Jodi some new skills, and have a new bird girlfriend. She likes it a whole bunch which is nice as she didn't really like the Banner Saga. She is on Team Ti'zo as well.
~~~
Played: 8/4. Evening.
We got to the gate and choose Hedwyn. We had a decent amount of discussion around a lot of choices in this session. It was good and I love that I can have this sort of discussion about the a game with her. While one major choices we often agree, brings a perspective is often something I hadn't considered. When asked basically "what is your Reader's history" she had really great insight to options that I was not likely to pick and certainly swayed me. Gosh I love this gal and this game.
The matches seem to be getting tougher as well. I really want to do a playthrough where you fail all of them.
~~~
Played: 8/4. Late Evening.
Played a bit without my Girlfriend. Oooo.. this game really, REALLY opens up in a way that I wasn't exactly expecting. I kind of wish I hadn't played more and waited to experience things with her. Especially since I choose to face the Accusers and Ti'zo is linked with them and it's soooo good. I got back story on a handful of characters, Jodi, Ti'zo, and Gilman. Did Pam's trail too and it was tough. Sounds like a rad item though.
Too much of the book gets unlocked though. I feel too overwhelmed to go through that now. I really wish there was a "previous dialogue" option though.
~~~
Played: 8/4. Late Evening.
We got to the point where we could free another party member. This time we chose Jodi.
~~~
Played: 8/10. Evening.
~~~
Played: 8/19. Late Evening.
We released Zhae this time and got much further. We were told by the Voice that there is a betrayer amongst us.. oooo...
~~~
Played: 8/22. Late Evening.
We released Rukey, cast a spell on the bad snake gal, and did Sandlewood's training. I really like playing as Snadlewood. He just has such great defensive options.
Also the story is really good and has a ton of cool moments, like the speech.
~~~
Finished: 8/26. Late Evening.
We finished it! It was fantastic! We absolutely love Ti'zo. Our final three were Ti'zo, Bertirude, and Volfred. Seemed fitting for the end. There's a really great scene with Ti'zo and the final boss that I really liked. I'm real curious about the other possible endings that I may just look them up.
Great game. Probably my game of the year so far.
~~~
XCOM: Enemy Within

Started: 8/31. Midnight. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
Decided to play this after watching the GB series about it. Playing it on Easy since I have a love/hate relationship with this game. Have had a decent time of it actually. There still a lot of tough decisions to make. The beast crew will not be able to finish the game. haha.
~~~
Played: 9/1. Early Morning.
Started to save scum a bit. I have been exploring some of the other stuff like the genetics lab and cyberborg thing by the end of this session. I'm finding I have no money and panic is still pretty high. I'm already facing Mutons. Despite being on easy the stress levels are still very high. haha.
~~~
Played: 9/1. Evening.
~~~
Played: 9/1. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 9/2. Midnight.
Meant to go to sleep and instead played this for 7 hours. Whoops. EW seems to add a lot of cool missions, like the base defend and the EXALT stuff, but there's so many. I've literally tired so often to just let my research or something finish out a day, but BOOM two missions in a row.
Easy still has a good amount of panic and stuff now that I'm later in the game. I still haven't had too many folks die. Only 1 or 2. Money is going to start being a much less of an issue if I can make it to the end of the month.
~~~
Played: 9/2. Evening.
~~~
Played: 9/2. Late Evening.
Played until there was a short power-outage at my house. There's so many more missions it seems like. I started going into psy-stuff. My main assault gal turned out to be one which is rad. I had a pair of "siblings" (ie people with the same last name) and one of them died. Fuck. I don't really see the benefit of the gene stuff. The effects are either unnoticeable, situational, or so minor as that they don't really matter much. The cyborg stuff is alright, but I can't see having more than one person as one.
Right now I'm stuck on getting this one bit of research done. I need 75 weapon fragments but apparently used almost all that I had up on something. So I'm clawing my way back into get them. I do tend to use a lot of explosives so maybe that's the reason I haven't been getting as many as I should. Ah well.
~~~
Played: 9/3. Evening.
~~~
Played: 9/3. Late Evening.
Finally was able to get all the stuff I need to build those damned fighters. Still think there are perhaps too many missions in this game. I took out the EXALT headquarters after guessing 50/50 where it was. It was in the USA. Which was a nice bit of unintended commentary on modern political stuff. I wonder if it was because I set up in Europe. I have all but two satellites over countries and have to imagine that this game is nearing an end. I must be in the back third by now. Hopefully!!
~~~
Played: 9/4. Midnight.
Can't shoot down those damned UFOs. The big mechs are now showing up and fuuuuuck them. Apparently suppression works real well on them though. Wish I had known that sooner. Ah well.
I now have all the satellites launched and my base full. Don't know what I'm going to do now with all this money.
~~~
Played: 9/4. Evening.
~~~
Finished: 9/4. Late Evening.
Beat the game! It just sort of ends, huh? No epilogue. Bad guy ship goes boom then cut to title screen. That's a bit surprising considering the nature of the 2nd game. I guess there's a bad ending?
Anyway, I enjoyed my time with it this time around. I had a really rad assault lady who sacrificed herself to save the world. RIP Col. Devil Dog.
Playing it on easy I can definitely see how people would find it more enjoyable to play it on harder levels. Not really having to deal with losing people or even having them injured, made the late game not very tense. The early game was still pretty well done. I guess I could have increased the difficulty afterwords, but whatever.
I'm interested in playing the 2nd game, but I don't know if I'll pick it up any time soon. There's so many other games I want to get to/finish.
~~~
NieR:Automata

Started: 9/5. Late Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
This game was on sale and I've been meaning to get to it. I've heard things about the PC version, but it seems to run fine for me. I appreciate that the gamepad controls can be completely rebound, and that subtitles are not only on by default, but there's no option to turn them off? (maybe there is, I didn't see one). I played up til you get to the little town area. Will probably play more, though I was already overwhelmed by the size of that area and had to do my best not to go looking for secrets.
~~~
Played: 9/7. Late Morning.
Defeated a boss in the desert. While a lot of stuff had been spoiled for me, a lot of the charm and small things hadn't. I think I understand why this game resonated with so many folks. Though I need to play more of it. I'm not too excited for how large the zones are or how much flower picking there is, but this game does have a lot of style and charm. I don't like 9S though. I can't stand that sort of character archtype. Or maybe it's that's his voice actor so commonly voices "those sorts of characters."
~~~
Played: 9/7. Late Evening.
~~~
Played: 9/8. Midnight.
Got through the Amusement Park, and fought some Goliaths in the main city area, then did some side quests. I wonder how many side quests have alternative solutions, 'cause it seems like some may, but I can't be sure. I almost want to look it up, but it may spoil other things. Perhaps I should just focus on the main missions.
~~~
Played: 9/8. Early Morning.
Found out about some Aliens, and met A2. Also did the stamp mission in the Amusement Park and that was kinda cute. The play was definitely the highlight.
~~~
Played: 9/8. Evening.
~~~
Played: 9/8. Late Evening.
Completed Ending A. It just sort of snuck up on me. I finished up the one area, then it was just ON straight to the end. haha. I wasn't even really prepared for it. The ending, itself, was not so great. But the whole Adam and Eve thing was uninspired. I'm glad to know that's not the real ending. Also the love stuff between 2B and 9S is awful and forced and I hate those sorts of relationships.
Also, apparently, a person I know work on the music in some form. I saw in the credits a Yuki Yamaguchi, and I went to school with someone named that who was a piano player. Definitely the best one I've every known personally. Cool guy. Hope it's the same person.
Anyway! On to B!
~~~
Played: 9/9. Midnight.
B starts off really strong, but I didn't like the bit where 9S is just flying through the tube instead of actually doing recon. It just didn't really make any sense. Anyway. I played up to beating the desert boss. Already found a whole lot of stuff I had missed my first run though. Also, man do they give you a lot of weapons that you can't upgrade or really use with 9S. I don't really like playing as him at all. The hacking is.. eh... maybe I should switch to mouse and keyboard for it. I find it hard to aim with the right stick. I was also hoping there would be more scenes involving the hacking. Like they would talk to you while you do it, but no such thing happens. At least not yet.
~~~
Played: 9/9. Late Morning.
It seems the game resets some side quests if you didn't finish them. That's a shame. Especially since I thought I did with some of them. Ah well. I just finished the Amusement Park. This game's world is surprisingly small considering how big it feels. Can't wait to unlock fast travel again though. Gosh I miss it already. haha. I like how the scientist side quest wraps up. It's funny.
~~~
Played: 9/10. Midnight.
Now I have access to transporting again. yay! I did some side missions mostly. I really don't like the racing ones. I did one where a lady revealed she was a "type E" and was quite mad. Probably won't ever use the pod action I got from it, Wire. Met the "Wise Machine". That's a cute side quest so far. I'll probably clear up a few more side stuff before doing the main story.
~~~
Played: 9/10. Morning.
Not many of the side quests have happy endings, huh? I completed the Couple one, the Wise Machine one (I think, it jumped to its death), and the Robo-monk one.
~~~
Played: 9/17. Early Evening.
Did a bunch of sidequests, and stopped just outside the castle. I really do like the additions to the story in path B. Also I saw some criticism that a lot of this game's side quests are "go there, do a thing/talk to someone, go here, repeat" and yeah, they totally are, but also the story and commentary is interesting and cool. Still not a fan of the main characters. Also I found some more weapons and am still pretty much just hacking each enemy with 9S.
~~~
Played: 9/19. Evening.
Finished up B. I enjoyed this path considerably more after the Flooded City stuff. I think I may try to mainline it through C and D, 'cause the previews looked interesting.
Mechanically I think this game is prehaps too thin. There's a lot of gameplay and mechanics. Many of them interesting, but I feel like it would have been a better game if it wasn't an action game? I loved to see the chip system in a turn based game.
One thought I had about 9S is that he's meant to represent how the developer thinks of his audience. With 2B as the fantasy perfect girl. Or least what the designer thinks his audience think is that. They do some interesting things in that regards with 9S toward the end of B.
I didn't do all the sidequests I found. I'll probably just end up looking them up at some point instead. In fact, what I would really like of this game is a super well done Let's Play of it.
ADDENDUM: I forgot to mention this before, but there's some real spooky shit that happens during B's end. Like ghostly girls appearing in the Bunker.
~~~
Played: 9/26. Midnight.
OK. Started up path C. Oh boy does this start. I'm a bit surprised since I was assuming it was going to be about A2's actions during the events of other endings, but it's set after. 2A does seem pretty cool, though they still make you play as 9S, boooo.
I think I've solidified my opinion on this game. I really like it's themes, spectacle, and the execution of them both, but am finding the characters pretty trite, the story... aimless?, and the gameplay monotonous. This game is paradoxically nostalgic, archaic, but intriguing and... fresh? no, not fresh... It's like a game pulled from a bygong era with a fresh coat of paint.
~~~
Played: 11/12. Late Evening.
Finally got back to this game. Found the time apart made me like some of it more? Or at least I liked playing as A2. Still don't like 9S. I feel I'm getting real close to the end of C though. I've also started to just mainline through the game. I don't want to stop for any more sidequests.
~~~
Played: 11/13. Midnight.
Got to the point in the tower where you have to fight a bunch of guys as 9S and just had a bad run of it. I continue to really not like 9S and wish I was only playing as 2A. Also I found out that you can hold the hack button... geez.
~~~
Played: 11/14. Early Morning.
Completed C. That sure was a thing. The plot twists are kinda silly, but also unexpected so that's cool. I like how some of the side missions had hinted at some of them. Particularly the "E" models existing.
~~~
Finished: 11/15. Early Morning.
Completed ending E, I'm going to go cry some more. Holy shit. I don't think I've ever been hit so hard by an ending before. This game is the Undertale of 2017. In the way that it conveys its themes through mechanics and the sort of commentary it has on the nature of video games, both the worlds of the games and the audiences' feelings towards the games. Ending E really solidifies some of my thoughts on how the characters function in the sort of meta-narractive of the game. This game is not about robots repeated trying to recreated and protect human culture, it's about the nature of video games and tends in gaming.
~~~
Metroid: Samus Returns

Started: 9/15. Morning. 3DS. Mixed.
Hoo Boy. I don't know about this game. The controls are questionable. Movement with the circle pad feels awful and is tiring pretty quickly. I got up to where I got the Ice Beam, and freezing enemies in a single shot only leaves them frozen for like 5 seconds. The jumping doesn't feel precise. The counter system is oddly tight and there's a fair bit of animation priority. This game would feel much better on a full game pad with a d-pad instead. The level design seems to railroad you a lot so far which is disappointing. You often drop down into a room where you can't get out the same way.
They have added stuff like transporters/fast travel, which is nice I suppose. Can't tell if the locations are convenient yet though. I'll play more of this game, but I'm not convinced that it is anywhere as good as AM2R. If anything it's mediocre, if not just bad?
~~~
Played: 9/15. Late Morning.
Hrmm... I'm enjoying this game more, but the circle pad controls are still super awkward. The Metroid fights are better than the ones in AM2R, but that's not much of a compliment considering they were the worst thing about that game. I got the bombs, spider ball, and lightning armor. The Lightning Armor seems pretty cool, but I do hope you get stuff that make the resource management less important.
~~~
Played: 9/15. Afternoon.
First thing is, I didn't want to stop playing. 2nd thing, oh man, my left hand hurts a lot from the 3DS. I've had this issue before on the handheld but yeesh. I'm enjoying the game more, in general, though my previous criticisms still apply. Though the level design sort of maps to the original, its much more expansive and labyrinthine. Area 2 and 3 don't seem to lock you to a path as much, which I appreciate. I've gotten the Varia suit, spring ball, and grapple beam. The latter I didn't even know was going to be in this game. I also got the wave beam, which doesn't stack with the ice beam, but that's kinda ok? The basic beams in this game are really unpowered and they really seem to want you to parry.
I fought one metroid boss that jumped through 3 different areas. It was a neat idea, but I'm not sure why they choose to do it on such a common boss.
So far, I feel like getting upgrades just happens. Like there's no lead up or set piece how there is in some previous games/AM2R. I haven't gotten something cool after beating a boss other than the Springball. Which, while useful, isn't necessary as you can bomb jump real well in this game.
There are some smart things about this game. In free aim mode, if you're targeting a grapple point then it'll auto switch to the grapple beam. Now if only it had all the nifty morphball rules though.
~~~
Played: 9/15. Early Evening.
Hand hurts again. Bah. Area 3 is SOOOOO massive. And I feel like I haven't gotten any new ability since grapple beam. So many missile upgrades though. Super Missiles/power bombs would be nice. I'm coming across enough doors that require them. Things deal sooo much damage too and they don't seem to have the smart health drops like Super Metroid.
~~~
Played: 9/15. Evening.
Ok. In area 4? Got the Spazer. Doesn't stack with the ice beam. In fact, I often forget that I have the ice beam. I really wish there was a way to have aim/missiles toggle instead of as a hold. The enemy variety is real lackluster compared to AM2R. Its really hard not just to compare this to that game, but AM2R was just so much better.
~~~
Played: 9/15. Late Evening.
Finished up this session with getting the Phase Shift or whatever the time slowing mechanic is called. There was a real bad section that involved running from something that would kill you instantly. that sort of maso-core BS has no place in games like this and I really wish devs would stop putting stuff like it in Metroid-vanias. It was decently checkpointed, but it just felt so awkward and awful. A lot of trail and error between 30+ second load screens. I hated it.
Anyway, I now have the space jump and super missiles as well. Which about time! I'm tempted to go back through other areas now, but apparently there are some types of doors I still can't open, so I'll probably wait til I explore more of area 5. The boss against the Delta (?) Metroid was cool, and the new design is interesting. Still took me too many tries and everything deals too much damage.
~~~
Played: 9/16. Late Morning.
Got the Gravity Suit and Plasma Beam. Again, there's no build up for these sorts of items. It's all really just "Oh, you found it! here's what it does. Go use it I guess." I can tell that the last to items I need at the Screw Attack and Power Bombs. I can see where one of them is, but can't figure out how to get in to get it. I spent some time going through other areas, but I could only pick up a few things.
The game is very pretty and I like the art style, but so far my opinion has not really changed on it.
~~~
Played: 9/16. Afternoon.
Now I have screw attack and I got to the first Gamma Metroid and... it's a pretty good boss. Real silly design. I remember having a lot of trouble with the first one in AM2R and this is no different though this one is a much more varied boss battle and is much more interesting.
Between this and AM2R I kind of want to play the original. If only to see what level design both borrowed. There's definitely rooms that I've recognized in this from AM2R despite them appearing different.
~~~
Played: 9/16. Afternoon. Negative.
I beat that boss and actually really enjoyed that fight. It was pretty cool, if a bit tedious. Definitely the best thing the game so far.
However, shortly after I encountered a boss fight with this large robot. It's terrible. One of the worst designed boss fights I've seen in a long time. You have to spider ball up it's grinder things, but there's a bit of momentum to the spideball and it's real easy to get knocked of it. If you mess up you have maybe one more chance to do it before having to sit through about 2 minutes where you can't hurt the boss at all. Also, the fact that you need to do that is not super clear partially because how easy it damages you. I had to look it up, and doing it right is inconsistent and tight.
The boss has this inhaling attack that it does between every attack between it's other attacks in it's 2nd phase. This attack is super damaging, but laughably easy to dodge. You just space jump in one of the corners. But it also lasts like a minute and is just a big waste of time.
There's 3 phases too! Just give me that damn powerbombs and stop wasting my time, game! Bosses in this game don't drop you're special juice for the unique powers, which is a damn shame, because being able to use those abilities during boss fights. I only ever want to use Lightning Armor but it doesn't always work.
I can't imagine I'll enjoy the battle against the Queen Metroid.
~~~
Played: 9/16. Early Evening.
Beat the BS boss. "it was easy once I memorized it's patterns" is not good boss design. Especially when you need to figure out how to do something pretty opaque. For the 3rd phase you actually have to lay bombs down during it's inhaling attack. If you do that during it's 2nd phase, nothing happens. Great boss design there... ugh.
After that I'm in the final-ish area. It's all techie? The areas in this game are barely distinguishable. I decided to go back to the previous areas, and 100% Area 2. Then flew over the wall where you're ship lands to find... a couple of items? I guess they expected people to do that.
I've been seeing this crystal blocks around the game, and expecting to get a powerup to break them, but I think they're there for just flavor and are going to end up being what the baby metroid eats at the end.
Also, looking over the edge there made me think there may be something added after the Queen Metriod. I already saw there is a Ridley fight at some point. But I think that may be DLC?
~~~
Played: 9/16. Evening.
Went through some of the older areas again. There's definitely another ability that I'm going to get and I'm guess that it's similar to speed dash/shine sparking.
This game does have some really pretty backgrounds but most of the rooms/areas are otherwise so copy'n'paste. It's really telling how the music is unique to the room style instead of the area. They all use the same cave/rock appearance with a few unique things for specific rooms, but that's it. It also lacks the tone of the original. Which, admittedly would be tough to convey and is something probably best left to that game.
I do kinda just want this game to be over, but the area I'm in now seems pretty massive. hrmmm. At least my hand isn't hurting as much?
~~~
Played: 9/16. Late Evening.
Got to the Queen. Only attempted her once. No clue what to do. They put enemies in the rooms I cleared of Metroids. Booo.
~~~
Finished: 9/17. Morning.
Beat the game. Of course there is a boss after the Queen Metroid. It's Ridley. The fight would be fine, but it goes on too long and has too many phases. It over shadows the Queen fight, which could have been way better. Having the baby metroid with you to get 100% of the items is an idea, but considering all you get is more missiles or whatever, eh... There's areas lined with spikes that I couldn't figure out how to get through to get the items. My clear time was 13:03:27. I don't have any interest is going through it faster or getting 100%. This game is a disappointment.
Ugh to the Fusion bit after the credits too. That should have referenced that more if they actually cared. AM2R is the superior game.
~~~
Heat Signature

Played: 9/23. Late Morning. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
This game is pretty nifty. A lot of the missions are kinda the same but I like the emergent stories that pop up. My first character had a series of rough missions, then bled to death in space. Whoops.
I'm not too fond of the way the ships control. They're pretty unruly. I did have one mission where they started me outside of a ship with no pod and I had to use my guns to get to the ship then board. That was pretty rad.
~~~
Played: 9/23. Afternoon.
Hrmm.. I'm finding myself getting thrown out of the airlocks a whole lot. Sometimes 3+ times a mission. That never feels good. Bah. It's a little annoying that eventually there's only tough missions left for a character right around the time you start getting interesting gear. "Ok, cool now I can start doing Hard missions. Wait these are all Audacious. Fuck." I wish more stuff carried over between characters.
That said. I am having fun with it. It seems like it's a good podcast game. I haven't done too much raiding of non-mission ships, but I imagine that's how you get a lot of the good stuff.
~~~
Played: 9/23. Early Evening.
Some times the randomization in this game is really mean. Though Maybe I need to learn to cut my loses more. I just want to have more cool stuff. Grrr...
Sufficed to say, my one well built character died.
~~~
Played: 9/23. Early Evening. Mixed.
I don't know about this game now actually. Either I'm just not good at it or am playing it wrong. I don't know. It's really rough in ways that's a bit annoying. Maybe I just need to take a break from it. I just feel like I'm doing the same things over and over again and making very little actual progress. I wish all my characters shared a stash or I could pick an item to pass on to them. I don't know. I've never retired them. I've tried to get their personal missions done but they're too tough for what equipment I've found about them.
I am very close to the one stronghold. I forgot the faction but it's the guys with the non-lenthal weapons.
~~~
Played: 9/27. Midnight.
Yeah. I don't just know about this game. It's just not clicking with me. Something about the grindy trickle and not being able to restart missions just doesn't gel with me. I may try to play more of it, but I don't think this game is for me.
The differences in difficulty between Medium and are is perhaps too large. The punishment for failure too great. Especially since sometimes you just don't have the gear and there's nothing you can do about that, except grind for it. The emergent stories are the best part of this game, and I wish they leaned more into that than the other stuff.
~~~
Played: 9/27. Late Evening. Enjoyed
~~~
Played: 9/28. Midnight.
Ok. So, I don't know what happened, maybe it was just a good run, or maybe I understand the game better, but it just sort of clicked with me all the sudden. I had a real good run with Ezekiel Swanze (sp). Completed their personal mission. Though it bugged out a bit. It was literally like the ship just flew into a friendly station. Oops. I can raid the one Station, and I've attmpted a few times, but the guards always have shields and I've never had the equipment to deal with every enemy having shields. I really needed some sort of self-charging subverter or crashbeam. Ah well.
I still don't know how long I will stick with this game though, and I still hold a lot of my previous criticisms.
~~~
Played: 9/30. Midnight.
Liberated the one stronghold and was really disappeared that nothing really came of it. I didn't get anything special or interesting. I have gotten a lot better at this game, but I'm still not sure what to make of it. It's a decent podcast game. I did an detractor mission where it said the person was going to join me afterwords and they didn't. Shame, they had some cool stuff.
~~~
Lyne

Played: 9/27. Midnight. Mobile. Enjoyed.
I just got a smart phone. Like for the first time. I really love LYNE on PC and played it a whole bunch. I was looking for games to play on this thing, and came acrosss this game in the store. Only played til B, but it feels really good and I still love it. I can see myself playing it on the bus a whole lot.
~~~
Played: 9.27. Early Evening.
played a bit while finishing up listening to the bombcast. The tip of my finger feels a bit weird, but this game is still a lot of fun.
~~~
Played: 9/28. Midnight.
Got to the last stage on F and stopped. I haven't unlocked any colors that I like yet. Boo.
~~~
Played: 9/28. Evening.
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Played: 9/29. Late Evening.
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Played: 9/30. Late Evening.
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Played: 10/4. Evening.
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Played: 10/10. Afternoon.
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Played: 10/25. Late Morning.
Finally was able to beat this one really tricky puzzle.
~~~
Played: 10/25. Afternoon.
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Played: 10/25. Afternoon.
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Played: 10/25. Early Evening.
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Played: 10/25. Early Evening.
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Played: 10/25. Early Evening.
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Played: 10/26. Morning.
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Played: 10/26. Afternoon.
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Played: 10/26. Early Evening.
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Played: 10/26. Early Evening.
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Played: 10/27. Late Morning.
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Played: 10/27. Late Morning.
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Played: 10/27. Late Morning.
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Played: 10/27. Afternoon.
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Played: 10/27. Early Evening.
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Played: 10/27. Early Evening.
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Played: 10/28. Late Morning.
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Played: 10/29. Afternoon.
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Played: 10/29. Evening.
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Played: 10/30. Afternoon.
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Played: 10/30. Afternoon.
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Played: 10/30. Early Evening.
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Played: 10/30. Early Evening.
~~~
Played: 11/5. Midnight.
Completed "S", there seemed like there were a whole bunch of puzzles that were exactly the same in that one and that was a bit disappointing.
~~~
Played: 11/6. Early Evening.
T is brutal.
~~~
Played: 11/7. Late Morning.
~~~
Played: 12/26. Late Morning.
Attempted to figure out that one that I've been stuck on. No luck.
~~~
Strata

Played: 9/29. Midnight. Mobile. Enjoyed.
I was trying to think of other PC games I have that are mobile ports and I remembered this game. It was cheap and I decided to pick it up. It's pretty good!! While I'm not color blind I could see how that could be an issue with folks. I haven't checked the options though.
~~~
Played: 9/29. Early Morning.
This game really gets you into a flow state of sorts. I don't think I could explain my logic for how I know the solution to a puzzle, but I can usually look at it and know what step to take. At least for these easy ones. I know this game gets real tricky later on. But right now I'm just dealing with 4x4 and at most 4 colors.
~~~
Played: 9/29. Early Evening.
I'm that person now. The person who plays mobile games on the toilet.
~~~
Played: 9/29. Evening.
Got to 5x5 boards.
~~~
Played: 10/1. Early Evening.
Got to the first board that I'm really having trouble with.
~~~
Played: 10/4. Afternoon.
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Played: 10/4. Evening.
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Played: 10/5. Midnight.
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Played: 10/6. Morning.
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Played: 10/6. Evening.
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Played: 10/7. Late Evening.
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Played: 10/6. Evening.
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Played: 10/10. Late Morning.
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Played: 10/15. Early Morning.
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Played: 10/17. Early Morning.
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Played: 10/17. Late Morning.
I'm getting real good at solving this 5x5 puzzles super quick.
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Played: 10/17. Early Evening.
I got to a set that has a bunch of 3x3 that so far have been really easy? Maybe I'm just good at this game.
~~~
Played: 10/18. Morning.
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Played: 10/19. Morning.
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Played: 10/19. Morning.
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Played: 10/19. Afternoon.
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Played: 10/19. Early Evening.
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Played: 10/20. Early Morning.
Got to 6x6 puzzles the very first one gave me a lot of trouble. I just couldn't find the starting square.
~~~
Played: 10/20. Early Evening.
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Played: 10/20. Early Evening.
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Played: 10/21. Morning.
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Played: 10/21. Late Morning.
~~~
Played: 10/22. Late Morning.
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Played: 10/22. Late Morning.
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Played: 10/23. Late Morning.
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Played: 10/23. Early Evening.
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Played: 10/23. Early Evening.
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Played: 10/24. Morning.
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Played: 10/24. Early Evening.
~~~
Finished: 10.25. Morning.
I liked this game, but the puzzles never got super hard. There were times where it was tricky, but I was never really stuck on one for very long, and then it just sort of ended. The last group of levels wasn't even particularly difficult.
~~~
Omega Strike

Started: 10/5. Midnight. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
Saw this game mentioned on Twitter. Picked it up. Seems really cool so far. Really nice pixel art and catchy music. When you take damage you don't get knocked back and that's a bit strange. It feels off. You can only shoot horizontally and up. Not down. And that's a bit strange as well. The mechanic of switching between characters that they teased at the beginning seems potentially really neat. It seems to do the smart thing of only dropping health picks when you need them. So far health has been plentiful and I appreciate that a lot!!
You can't rebind the gamepad controls and that's always disappointing. Especially since you can rebind the keyboard!!
So far this game seems like a solid, if a bit trite Metroidvania. But the world needs more solid Metroidvanias!
~~~
Played: 10/5. Early Morning.
I got to the point where I have all three characters. I've did a little backtracking and mostly just found heart pieces and gold. A little disappointing. The upgrades you can buy don't seem to have too much of an effect. They're a little underpowered. The bosses are simple but serviceable.
I'm in an area now, the woods, that is very linear. I guess all the zones have been pretty linear. I do appreciate that they are circular. Once you defeat a boss it seems to spit you out not far from the start of the area. Still I wish there was more exploration. Less directed hallways.
Having three characters is weird. It's can be tricky to keep track of there abilities in the heat of the moment. "Oh whoops this isn't the guy who double jumps!" Having one button to swap is not idle. I really wish there was a button for each character. They don't use the shoulder buttons so there's definitely room.
~~~
Played: 10/12. Morning. Mixed.
Got a bit further. Now the one character, Sarge, can shoot through certain blocks and cling to railings. It's really weird how the only upgrades I've gotten are for him. I'm also now in an area where I'm looking for some dynamite for someone.
This game is just kinda mediocre. It's not great. The level design and the fact that you can't shoot down, the large hit boxes. It just doesn't feel good to play. The three character gimmick isn't utilized well. It also doesn't drop enough health for the amount of damage you're taking. I may see it through to the end, but ehhh...
~~~
Played: 10/13. Early Morning.
Gosh these later areas just go on and on and on. I really do not like the level design or the boss design in this game very much unfortunately. It's just so boring? or uninspired? Something about this game just feels off. Something about the way it moves. It's sticky? And the level design isn't designed with that in mind.
I got to a boss who will quickly change directions with no warning or deceleration. You can't really react to it, so you take damage. I could walk back to town to buy some health items, but then I'd have to walk all the way back. It's icky.
~~~
Played: 10/13. Morning. Negative.
I've gotten to the point where I just bought a bunch of healing items and am just running through as fast as possible. I might give this game one more chance before I just call it quits.
~~~
Played: 10/14. Late Morning.
Yeah.... I'm done with this game. It's just not good.
~~~
Monument Valley

Started: 10/6. Early Evening. Mobile. Enjoyed.
This game seems cool. I love the prospective stuff. Moves a bit slow though.
~~~
Divinity: Original Sin II

Started: 10/8. Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
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Played: 10/8. Late Evening.
so I broke down and bought this game. It seems interesting so far. I like the turn base combat. Typically I don't like wRPGs since they have that weird active combat that doesn't make any sense to me. I only played basically to Fort Joy and got Ifan in my party now. Trying to find the red head and the elf lady.
~~~
Played: 10/9. Midnight.
I got out of the prison, but there seems to be 3 ways to go now and I'm and struck with indecision! Also I really like all of my party members. I did go with an original character rather than a premade one though.
~~~
Played: 10/9. Morning.
Got to the Seekers' camp. This game is rad. I met a fire slug who was originally a princess and lied to her. I'm excited to go back one I unlock a new waypoint. I have a super rad cat familiar that adds a lot of mobility to my main character. I robbed a chest in the middle of a field and everything blew up!! that was cool. Had to teleport my folks out of there. I'm really liking this game.
~~~
Played: 10/9. Early Evening.
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Played: 10/9. Evening.
Met the human God and some necromancers. Went through a maze by teleporting with my cat to get there. I didn't mention this before, but in my previous session I had a met a very good dog. The animals in this game are great. The writing in general is great. I totally understand what people see in it.
~~~
Played: 10/9. Evening.
~~~
Played: 10/9. Late Evening.
Ok, so I got all the soul jars from the one cave. I drank the trickster's to get off the ring and I gave the one back to the priestess. I'm not sure what I'll do with the other three.
~~~
Played: 10/13. Midnight.
I did a lot this session. Furthered Ilfan's and Sibelle's quests. I killed Alexander. That was a cool fight. I wish I had did some other stuff first. Afterwords I stayed on the island to mop up some other things I know I didn't do. Did the dragon quest. I want to next deal with the 3 necromancers, find all of the one armor set, and go back through the main base to see if there's anything there.
~~~
Dujanah

Started: 10/21. Early Evening. PC Itch. Enjoyed.
This is a strange game that doesn't play well, but has cool music and visually. Reminds me of Off or Lisa. I got to the point where a spider asked me to collect coins from the arcade games. I don't know if I'll do that since I don't know about those arcade games, but I might buy the soundtrack.
~~~
Played: 12/27. Early Morning.
Tried to finish this game up, but couldn't get the final arcade token I need so I just gave up. Real cool game though. Did the "race" thing and enjoyed it. I do love the soundtrack.
~~~
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

Started: 10/22. Afternoon. 3DS. Neutral.
Been watching a stream of FE: Radiant Dawn and wanted to pick up one of these games. Remembered that this one existed and decided to check it out. Very slow opening. Story pretty generic (but that's what I expected). Main Character, Alm, is a total dofus idiot boy, but I also expected that. Really nice looking and I'm surprised by the amount of voice acting.
~~~
Played: 10/22. Late Evening. Enjoyed.
This game seems pretty cool. Dumb plot, and some icky stuff with some male characters around female characters, but I like the basic game play so far. Some stuff I wish were better explained.
~~~
Played: 10/23. Evening.
OF course the MC becomes leader of the rebel army for reasons. haha. This game is cool though. The one gal, Faye, has gotten so many good level ups. I really wish I could have made her a mercenary instead of that terrible sexist, Gray. I did give him the Lightning Sword and it's pretty rad. I made her a Pegasus knight and having two of those is interesting. Healers seem rad as fuck in this game and super survivable. I should have made another one, ah well.
~~~
Played: 10/23. Late Evening.
Stormed a castle. I restarted this mission a few times out of curiosity. Couldn't really dent the one guy at all. I wonder if you can? The mission music is pretty repetitive and a bit annoying after a while. I got a new bow guy that is real bad. Ah, well, both my flying ponies are good. Green Knight guy is alright too, but Red Knight is better. The map itself was a bit annoying and I didn't really properly get my slower characters in the fight fast enough.
~~~
Played: 10/24. Evening.
I am now a cute priestess that loves to kill pirates. I like some other things the story telling is doing. The story itself is fine. Probably pretty impressive depending on how much is the same as the original's.
~~~
Played: 10/26. Evening.
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Played: 10/26. Late Evening.
I got to Act 3 and can now control both armies and that's rad. This game has some pretty cool stuff about it, but can be real tough if you are underleveled.
Also, oh boy, some of these characters are super extra icky and I hate that. I like Faye in combat, but her relationship to Alm is gross and written gross. Celica and Alm's relationship is... I don't know. Not super believable, I guess? I think I like her party better too.
I wish the side quest stuff was listed some where in the menus too. so far I haven't gotten anything interesting from them yet though.
~~~
Played: 10/27. Early Evening.
Did a little bit of Alm's story then did some grinding to get my characters to some of their next classes and up their friendship ranks.
~~~
Played: 10/27. Late Evening.
Switching between the two is interesting, but apparently enemies can attack you on the world map so it's awkward. I had to restart a lot of fights too 'cause folks died. Oops.
~~~
Played: 10/31. Morning.
Played with on the bus to work. Surprisingly good bus game even when muted.
~~~
Played: 10/31. Early Evening.
I like the story in this game even if the plot twists are super obvious.
~~~
Played: 10/31. Late Evening.
Got to the end of Alm's Act 3. There was a really good scene with Clair and Gray that I wish would just end there relationship since it was perfect and Gray is a scummy creep. The last mission was balls though. Having to not defeat a particular enemy that would attack you was almost completely RMG. I happen to get lucky and was able to get a crit on the boss. Faye continues to be pretty rad. Also, holy shit do Python and Lu suck. Looks like Lu's sister should be pretty good. My Kliff was the highest ranked character in my party until I got Matiltha or whatever her name is. And she's real good! Way better than Clive.
~~~
Played: 11/1. Morning.
This is a good bus game.
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Played: 11/1. Early Evening.
Got a bit more through Celica's Act 3. It's a bit annoying that I need an axe for her quest, but I can't trade it from Alm since I already traded something with him. Boooo.
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Played: 11/1. Late Evening.
Had a really shitty mission in the desert where most of my guys could only move 1 spot and it was slow and boring. Leon, the archer killed like 8 dudes though...
Also, I found an axe and got a bear statue. And there's another shitty sexist mercenary type. I saw a red exclamation point over the boss's head when using the two sisters, but didn't get a chance to figure out what it was.
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Played: 11/2. Morning.
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Played: 11/2. Early Evening.
So I got to the point where you can fight one of the 2 desert generals. First tried Sonya because I figured you would recruit who ever you beat, however, that mission wasn't great and then I realized the opposite was probably true, which it is.
...I really like her design.
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Played: 11/3. Morning.
Tried to take out the Thief King guy, but woah boy did it kill me a whole lot.
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Played: 11/3. Early Evening.
So much grinding to get my characters to up a bit to take out the Thief king guy. Genny is now a priest or something and is absurdly good.
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Played: 11/4. Midnight.
Got Sonya and Est, beat the thief guy. Gave the two shields you get for side missions over. Upgraded so many weapons. Sonya and Genny have scenes together, so they're pretty much never leaving my party.
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Played: 11/6. Early Evening.
Beat the 3 Dragoliches in the one dungeon. Apparently you can revive people there. I'm absolutely loving Sonya and saw one of her scenes with Genny that was pretty cute.
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Played: 11/9. Early Evening.
Clecia is now a Princess class.
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Played: 11/10. Early Evening.
just started Act 4.
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Played: 11/13. Early Evening.
Had to do some grinding cause crappy characters like Python kept dying.
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Played: 11/16. Early Evening.
Only did the one story missions I was having trouble with.
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Played: 11/21. Morning.
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Played: 11/21. Early Evening.
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Played: 11/25. Early Morning.
Trying to go through this one dungeon but my characters keep dying and I have to restart! Ugh! I wish I set to casual. I don't know why I didn't.
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Played: 11/29. Morning.
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Played: 11/29. Early Evening.
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Played: 11/30. Morning.
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Played: 11/30. Early Evening.
Finally beat this one mission I was on and I got a new healer that knows Physic.
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Played: 12/1. Morning.
I keep dying in the same damn dungeon, I think I might just stop going into it until later.
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Played: 12/5. Early Evening.
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Played: 12/6. Early Evening.
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Battle Chef Brigade

Started: 11/25. Midnight. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
This game seems real cool and right up my alley. I love the combat and puzzle aspects. Still finding the controls a bit strange and hard to get used to, but hopefully that'll change. I love the characters and the world.
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Played: 11/26. Midnight.
Got to Chapter 3. This game is rad. I decided to start stirring with the bumpers and that's so much better. I like the characters and the world. The combat could be a bit better. I've gotten stun-locked here and there.
Oh, I don't really like they joke that the innkeeper misgenders Mina. It's just not funny...
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Played: 11/26. Late Morning.
Basically at the point where they started the QL at. This game's little story is fun and better written than expected. The new mechanics with the fragile and poison gems are interesting. I just wish I could bring 4 cooking supplies instead of 3. Having a cutting board all the time would be nice!!
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Played: 12/9. Late Morning.
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Played: 12/9. Afternoon.
Got to the first of the 3 fights and, that fucking dragon keeps killing me.
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Played: 12/9. Afternoon.
Completed Chapter 4!!
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Played: 12/9. Early Evening.
Played through a good chunk of Chapter 5.
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Finished: 12/10. Afternoon.
Completed the game. It's structure is a bit strange. Chapter 4 was super long, but 5 was pretty short, and 6 was just the final battle. Still it was pretty good little game. There is certainly rough edges and places they could expand, but it's good. I may write a review.
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Million Onion Hotel

Played: 11/25. Early Morning. Mobile. Enjoyed.
This is like the match 3 or bingo of McPixel. What a fucking weird game. I don't know how long I'll play it for.
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Played: 11/25. Early Evening.
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XCOM 2

Started: 12/10. Early Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed.
Decided to pick this and the DLC up on sale recently. Lost the very first mission after the tutorial. Fucking hell. Restarted and did fine. We'll see if I stick with it. Already like the more customization options.
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Played: 12/10. Late Evening.
Got to and completed the mission where they introduce the chosen. Man those Lost are annoying! At least you gain another turn after you kill them. The new tiredness mechanic seems good so far. Hopefully that means you relying less on the same people like in the first game. I have a grenadier that everyone seems to like, so I nicknamed him "Buddy". I also had a guy who looked like Majima from Yazuka 0 so I now have Majima in my party. he's a support type.
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Played: 12/11. Evening.
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Played: 12/11. Late Evening.
They throw a lot of stuff at you in this game. Sheesh. The intel stuff seems cool, but I'm a bit overwhelmed. Doing the Skulljack mission now. There's snake people and a weird psychic. I feel I need to wait til the officer is in a better spot.
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Played: 12/12. Evening.
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Played: 12/12. Late Evening.
I basically did one mission, bah. It involved stealing back a canister but the assassin showed up and well. There was a lot of save scumming. Also my guys are all real fucked up now.
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Played: 12/12. Late Evening.
Played a little bit then was like "I should go to bed."
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Obduction

Played: 12/13. Evening. PC Steam. Neutral.
I wanted to play this game with my GF because she is a big fan of Myst, but she has issues with camera movement in games. She gets motion sick real easy. I heard there was an option to make this game play like the original Myst, but that's not really true. The camera isn't static and you still have to move it, so she unfortunately found it unplayable. Major bummer.
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Played: 12/16. Evening. Enjoyed.
We looked back at the settings and set the cursor to detached. Also I turned my screens brightness all the way down to 0. That seemed to help her a lot. We played for about 30 to 40 minutes before she had to go lay down. The turning is a bit too fast.
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Star Traders: Frontiers

Played: 12/17. Late Evening. PC Steam. Enjoyed?
I picked this up after watching a Waypoint stream of it. It's dense and not well explained, but has some cool stuff going for it. I guess. I actually probably shouldn't have picked it up when I think about it. Ah well. It's at least interesting. Wish it explained itself a bit better.
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Played: 12/18. Midnight. Mixed.
I decided to play more of it, and I think it's a bit to rough now. The combat isn't there yet. The rolling needs more flavor. The exploration stuff is kind a shitty.
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Played: 12/18. Early Evening. Enjoyed.
Started over and I've been sticking to the main story line. It's considerable more interesting. I'm also playing with a large ship and crew and am finding the ship to ship combat much better. I don't know how you can play this game with a small ship.
The ship upgrade system is not great and sooo expensive. Wish they'd tone that down a bit. I think they want you do do more trading, but it's tough.
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Played: 12/18. Late Evening.
Ok. I think I played about as much as there is right now. I've come against multiple walls where they're just like "we don't have this done yet!!" so I might just call it that and check it out again in a few months.
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Word Connect

Played: 12/25. Afternoon. Mobile. Enjoyed.
Played this on my gf's mother's phone with her on Christmas. It can be quite addicting...
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Played: 12/26. Afternoon.
Was bored at work with not much too do, so I decided to download this. It's so dumb and simple, but not a bad time at all.
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Played: 12/27. Morning.
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Played: 12/27. Late Morning.
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Played: 12/27. Afternoon.
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Played: 12/27. Early Evening.
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Played: 12/28. Afternoon.
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Played: 12/28. Afternoon.
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Played: 12/29. Early Evening.
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Played: 12/29. Afternoon.
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Played: 12/30. Afternoon.
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Played: 12/30. Afternoon.
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Played: 12/30. Late Evening.
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Played: 12/31. Late Morning.
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