Activities
Today
Ame no Marginal -Rain Marginal-
A short visual novel. Extremely short. But also extremely sweet and sad.
February 2026 results
| Priority | Backlog | Added this month | Beaten | Removed |
| High | 123 | 1 | 1 | - |
| Medium | 220 | 1 | - | - |
Feb 24 2026
November… a month that just passed really, my moms birthday, felt a little weird, still bought games…
Games added in November 2025
-
Botany Manor
-
The Spirit and the Mouse
-
Agatha Christie - Murder on the Orient Express
-
Marsupilami: Hoobadventure
-
Hooked on You: A Dead by Daylight Dating Sim™
-
Scarlet Hood and the Wicked Wood
-
Carefully Stamped
-
Rusty Lake: Roots
-
Verne: The Shape of Fantasy
-
Braid, Anniversary Edition
-
Projected Dreams
-
As Dusk Falls
-
Cats & Cups
Games added: 13 (7 less than last month)
Games won: 0 (1 less than the month before)
Also got some DLC’s for Jigsaw Puzzle…
Still only 1 cat game.. thats wild :D As always interested to hear recommendations :)
Feb 22 2026
February Assassination #2 (SG Win / PoP Pick)
Pumpkin Jack is an extremely mid game - it does what it does well, which is not much. As a 3D platformer and collectathon, it's pretty decent. There's platforming, exploration, combat and some puzzles, with no area being excellent but all being serviceable.
Platforming sometimes require a level of precision the games does not provide, with Jack's jumps being floaty and slippery. Exploration is mostly okay, you'll be on the lookout for crow skulls but other than that levels are extremely linear and there's nothing else to look for. Combat is basic and hectic with no skill involved, just button mashing, but the game keeps it fresh with enemy variety. Puzzles can be fine or awful, but they never go for long enough to bother you. Levels are mostly uninspired, dialogue is unnecessarily bad, graphics are generally good and the music starts off well and gets worse as the levels go by.
All in all, it would be a decent game to spend one or two afternoons with if you paid no more than $15, which means at least 50% off. That said ….
It gets a thumbs down for how poorly optimized/ported it is. My rig is not an incredible rig, but I can play Elden Ring, The Last of Us and Red Dead Redemption without hitches. Pumpkin Jack on minimum with all possible effects disabled barely went over 38 FPS for me, all the while frying my GPU. If you die and the level has to reload, or during cutscene transitions, it changes resolution, which can go from fullscreen to borderless to windowed without you ever asking for it. I play on a BenQ projector and it would cut the video output for 2 or 3 seconds as it did so, only to return with a wonky resolution. I don't expect AAA graphics, I just expect a game to run after being installed without requiring over an hour of tinkering.
And for that reason alone, it gets a thumbs down. As a dev, you cannot release a product in this state and call it a day.
Memo:
| Tag | Description |
|---|---|
| W2P | = Want to play. Use to distribute games to all other lists |
| Main«100% | Very big difference between main story and 100%, reminder for myself |
| ->100% | Want to get 100% |
| FE | = Finished elsewhere. Low prio, since I already finished the game on Epic/gog/etc, but I don’t mind to play it again if I don’t have any other games to play for specific event |
| f2p | Free to play. Used to be paid before? Might use for some events |
| iciao | Games that were given away by iciao. For events |
| HBC | Games that were a part of Humble Bundle Choice before. For events |
| Set | Game series, want to play these games in the right order |
| ▲ | Top tier. Games I really want to play |
| ■ | Mid tier. Games that can be picked for events if there’re not enough games in ▲ |
| ▼ | Low tier. Played and didn’t like or just not interested at the moment, but might change my mind in the future. Games that can be picked for events if not enough in ▲ and ■ |
| Extra |
| If the game is in 2+ lists, like Short and Long, then most likely I’m aiming 100% |
| Unfinished games I count as not played, because I will start a new game. |
| All short games are mid tier ■ by default unless specified otherwise |
Feb 18 2026
Vertical shoot-em-up. A shoots your regular guns, B fires a laser, and X uses your limited, screen-clearing bombs. The laser is kinda awkward since it starts off slowly moving away from your ship when the button is first held, but it instantly disappears entirely as soon as the button is let go, and on top of this, I didn’t notice much difference between it and the normal shots besides piercing (rarely useful) and slowing your ship’s movement, so I stuck with the regular guns for most of the game. I won’t call this a bullet hell because, besides one moment during the final boss on the hardest difficulty, there was always an obvious ship-wide opening to get through the bullet waves, so getting hit rarely felt unfair.
One thing I really like about this game is that, unlike a lot of other arcade-style shmups, this one actually saves your progress between stages, and getting game over only makes you redo the stage you’re currently on instead of having to start the whole game over.
One thing I didn’t like so much is the fact that the enemy waves thrown at you during the levels are randomized. Even before I realized this, I noticed the last couple levels started getting kinda repetitive and longer than they should have been, but it became obvious when I briefly started new games as the other playable ships to see how they played (their descriptions don’t really explain this) and the game kept throwing different enemies at me as the first wave. Plus, there are times where the randomizer doesn’t spawn any enemies and you’re just flying through an empty field for several seconds. Still, despite this, there is an actual difficulty curve here as well, with the enemies being spawned closer together and maybe shooting more frequently, too. I think the higher difficulties even affect this as well (and sometimes give bosses a new attack), but it’s hard to tell since there’s no description of what’s different between difficulties, and on top of this, I also feel like the higher difficulties increase the number of hits it takes to kill enemies and bosses as well, so between this and the aforementioned repetition, I’d only recommend beating the game once and not replaying it, not even on higher difficulties.
Lastly, although the game is mostly fair with its bullet patterns, there is one attack that’s a cheap hit: the last two or three bosses have laser attacks of their own that spawn instantly, and the only warning for where they’ll show up is an orange reticle against the red/orange background at the edge of the screen, so you won’t see or even know to look for it until after you’ve been hit by it a couple times.
Still, this is a pretty decent game overall, and I can easily recommend it for its base price of $2 (even moreso if you already have it from one of those itch.io bundles). You can buy it here: https://cosmiccrystal.itch.io/hellstar-squadron
February Assassination #1 (SG Win / PoP pick)
Please consider liking my review on Steam - it means a lot to me!
It's so good that you wonder why no one has done it before
Sleeping Dogs might look slightly dated from a graphical perspective, but it still plays like a good wine. You have the open world formula popularized by GTA (in particular Vice City and San Andreas) with a location that is more charming and full of character than anything that Rockstar was ever able to pull off. I've been to Hong Kon 12 years ago, and it was uncanny how many memories were brought back by the setting alone. Sure, it's not always fully realistic from a geographical perspective (I thought it was a bit weird that you don't have Hong Kong Island separated from Kowloon by the Victoria Harbour), but if it fails on that it succeeds entirely on the way it captures the vibes. I of course don't remember specific streets from my time there, but I remember the feeling of being there and Sleeping Dogs captures that feeling exquisitely.
Other notable differences from GTA are the focus on melee combat instead of mostly guns, and the acrobatic nature of movement (in particular considering earlier GTAs barely allowed you to jump). Driving and gunplay are as good as you'd imagine, and the world is peppered with fun side-activities to keep you busy when you need a break from the main story. Speaking of which, it is so good. It's a good mix of The Departed with Infernal Affairs, and most characters carry their weight in the plot and in the worldbuilding. The story is serious and deals with some serious trauma, such as drug addition, double life, cold-blood murders, etc, but all the while keeping things light on the side with some dating missions as well as missions where you escort celebrities for a night out. It's a good mix that keeps things fresh, moving and interesting.
Some of the side content can get a bit repetitive, but at least you have tools to keep them more manageable (such as location trackers on your map). Driving can be slippery until you get used to it, and once you start unlocking the fancier cars and tougher races, it's so satisfying. The auto-aim (playing on controller) made shooting good enough that it kicks Max Payne's ass while delivering blows and environmental kills that put Batman to shame. And don't get me started on freaking jumping from a moving car onto another just because we can.
Sleeping Dogs is an extremely solid open-world game owing nothing to the games that came before or after it
Then came October and I were finally able to come home and live again = more time to game
Games added in October 2025
-
Nine Witches: Family Disruption
-
Farewell North
-
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy
-
South of the Circle
-
7 Wonders: Ancient Alien Makeover
-
Dead Island 2
-
STORY OF SEASONS: Pioneers of Olive Town
-
Fruitbus
-
Caravan Sandwitch
-
Staffer Case: A Supernatural Mystery Adventure
-
Maggie's Movies - Second Shot
-
Bejeweled 3
-
Garfield Lasagna Party
-
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection
0 hours playtime
no achievements
-
Still Wakes the Deep
-
Cook Serve Forever
-
Kulebra and the Souls of Limbo
-
ORDER 13
-
Flowers And Favours: Florist Simulator
-
FIND ALL: Halloween
Games added: 20 (5 more than last month)
Games won: 1 (1 less than the month before)
Also got the Scooby Doo DLC for HF2, hope to try it soon :D
Different type of games, not much in the cat department this time… any opinions on the games would be lovely :)
Feb 17 2026
#395
#5 of 2026
February 17, 2026
Old Steamgift Wins
-
MirrorMoon EP
-
Eternal Hope
-
Tick Tock Isle
2.9 hours playtime
no achievements
-
A New Beginning - Final Cut
-
Dex
-
Cards of the Dead
-
Save Room - Organization Puzzle
-
The Last Campfire
-
Super Dungeon Boy
-
Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons
-
Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride
-
The Innsmouth Case
-
Eidolon
1.3 hours playtime
no achievements
-
Summum Aeterna
-
Meadow
-
Remnants of Naezith
-
GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath
-
The Divine Invasion
-
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
-
Weaving Tides
-
Toki
So, I intend to review all my Steamgift wins, one way or another (definitely not going to do it for the rest of my library). I’ve previously reviewed most of my completions month by month, but am missing some early ones (A bunch of which were from icaio – RIP), and have only sporadically reviewed my DNFs. I can recall most of them, but it’s hazy vibes for a few. The times are not necessarily right (did some idling for cards afterwards in some cases).
FINISHED (all 12/12 of those unreviewed)
• MirrorMoon EP: Go to a planet, which will have some set of structures and artifacts to find, and manipulate these to lead you to the next planet. I don’t think it’s a good game, but it did capture a sense of mystery and wonder and distance and isolation, aided by the simple geometric graphics (reminiscent of the ancient Domark games Dark Side and Driller). I finished Side A, but not Side B, where the universe opens up into a vaster collation of seasonal (technically multiplayer) randomness.
• Eternal Hope: A forgettable Limbolike. The animated screenshot refreshed my memory of the goat, but not more. Vibe: mid – worth playing if you already have it, but only if you’re hard up for unashamed limbolikes if you don’t.
• Tick Tock Isle: A (very) short and at times quite amusing time travel adventure where you go back and make the right changes.
• A New Beginning - Final Cut: Old-school point-and-click adventure from the guy who did Syberia. Mostly straight forward, with some very occasional obscurity/moon logic. It helps in adventure games if you find one or more of the main characters likeable; I didn’t (there was something a bit off in tone).
• Dex: It’s listed as a metroidvania, but the only things I can remember of it are that combat was overly laborious, and the backtracking was unfun (the world design may well have been more hub-and-spoke than true metroidvania)
• Cards of the Dead: I guess it’s a roguelike – collect cards to use against challenges and zombies and escape at the end of the chapter. More luck than skill-based, and gets increasingly unbalanced against the player. I finished two of the three characters but the end boss of the third one was an exercise in frustration.
• Save Room – Organization Puzzle: Fit weapons, ammo and healing items into oddly-shaped inventory grid, sometimes combining them or using them up. Not at all tricky except for the last puzzle or two, but I enjoyed it for what it was. I believe this is based on one (or more?) of the Resident Evils.
• The Last Campfire: A thoroughly charming cinematic puzzle adventure game – definitely worth playing.
• Super Dungeon Boy: A reasonably good platformer, with some slightly awkward physics, and a good –and occasionally devious – set of secrets to collect.
• Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons: Coordinate a pair of brothers (twin stick controller) through a cinematic puzzle adventure. Not just a good game mechanically, but also very effective emotionally – builds to a degree on what Ico did.
• Grim Legends: The Forsaken Bride: My first hidden object game, and one that at the time I found had a surprising amount of effort/care put into it. I liked it so much that I went on a bit of a hidden object game kick afterwards, but am now rather over them.
• The Innsmouth Case: A choose-your-own-adventure style visual novel with a tongue-in-cheek take on the Cthulhu mythos. I found it to walk the line well between silliness and faithfulness, and rather enjoyed it, but there will be Lovecraft lovers who will absolutely hate what they have done. It lacks any kind of narrative “map” for replays, so some of the paths are a bit tricky to find.
WILL NOT FINISH (9/26 of those unreviewed to date)
• Summum Aeterna: A roguelite whose combat is ok, but that is distinctly lacking in its (random) level design. I guess it’s a filler game for the studio to bring in some income between their metroidvania releases.
• Meadow: An odd combat-free MMO with a striking patchwork quilt visual style built around exploration and emotes and cooperation, where you play an animal. Somehow a number of my achievements are very rare (but to me blindingly obvious), while I’m missing a bunch that would require far more time and effort to have achieved. It is not a good game, but there are definitely those who will love it as an experience. I might – might - end up playing it again some time, but it’s not a game that can be “beaten” other than collecting everything, and some achievements can only be gotten if you buy a bunch of the developer’s other games.
• Eidolon: A lost-in-the-wilderness game, that really captures some sense of that despite it’s retro graphics. A deliberately horrid experience, but an atmospheric one (literally, at times). Meadow scratched my exploration itch far better, and I really don’t have a survival game itch.
• Remnants of Naezith: Get to the end as quickly as possible. What makes this particularly difficult is that you need to do it by swinging and releasing, and retaining the right amount of momentum. I beat the first world (only 5.5% of owners have done that), but the second (only 3.2%) and later worlds were beyond my abilities/patience. The best players are amazing, though (the game allows you to watch their runs).
• Gemcraft - Frostborn Wrath: A deep tower defence game I played and enjoyed a bunch, but it did get to the point at which it was more frustrating than fun, where you really need to optimise everything very carefully, possibly with a spreadsheet as there’s a lot of variables to optimise.
• The Divine Invasion: A woefully bad game with some unbelievably – unbelievably – good reviews, and the only game I have ever left a Steam review for that wasn’t badge related: “One of the most miserable hours of gameplay ever, with 5/6 of the achievements reached. Watch a Let’s Play on youtube before even thinking of buying this, at which point you won’t”.
• Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet: Technically a metroidvania, and quite stylish with its black silhouette plus zone colour graphics, though zones loop back to a common spine rather than being properly interconnected. I completed 5 of 7 zones, but constantly manouvering something like an overfull shopping trolley with wobbly wheels is is painful.
• Weaving Tides: A puzzle/shooter/explorer which could really have used a map – because not only is some of the navigation a little confusing, but much of each world is visually fairly similar, so you have to remember the geometry of the level without sufficient other cuing. Getting to the last boss from the save was a pain, the boss was annoying, and when I retried it after a significant amount of time I couldn’t remember how to get back (though admittedly I didn’t try very hard).
• Toki: A remastered (literal) arcade game – I completed a couple of levels and that was enough. I probably shouldn’t have entered this, and just played it on MAME.