Report #31 October

Kinda slow month.

On idling side, a bit of login here and there on Firestone as it also got a bigger patch to see some in-game stuff to update the wiki(why would I update the wiki when I mostly quit the game? good question, have no answer for it). On Idle Champions mostly daily login for the free paid currency and a bit of play during their event for few days and a free time gate which appears between events. Went back to Idle Slayer as they made a halloween event, got the bonuses for it and did an ultra ascend. Most likely will sideline it till possibly the christmas event. As no achievements progress have been made on any of them no linking.

Back to normal games. Most time been spend on EA Sports FC 27, finished the first season for an achievement and kinda went a big slower with it. Still they add way too much daily grinding stuff(the fact that I am lacking and I need way more time to get the wins doesn’t help me either) in either season or weekly objectives that give special cards and I kinda go back to it. Have most of the FUT achievements(still need to get some icons/ heroes which will be the biggest pain) and probably most of the kick off ones. Will have to focus on grounds which is a big ass grind fest and career which I somehow look forward to, buut atm still FUT objective grind(kinda abandoned champions and rivals as it was eating way too much time and wasn’t giving much rewards; not like I had too many points for champs as I managed to get once to the points required in my previous 3 weeks of focus on rivals). Apart from that a bit of grinding for the 0.01% drops in Dark Souls 3. SCS went back to making WoT achievements so I did the halloween and the new ATS dlc South Dakota events, along with the steam achievements for the South Dakota expansion. Still missing Illinois which was released when they stopped doing the WoT events so no purchase on my end and the new road trip dlcs but waiting for them to go a bit lower in price. Also got few demos in the next fest. Few “completed”, few yet to test out. From the played ones the only ones worth mentioning were Quiet Bloom(which was found in the giveaway spam from the G site, not to advertise them too much), Deadzone Rogue 2(found during my search during next fest) and maybe Pump Away(found in a list of next fest demos from devs from my country). Also finished Cute Capybaras and Aquilon: Lust Guild.

• EA Sports FC 27
  

  139.2 hours playtime

  23 of 46 achievements

• American Truck Simulator
  

  319.1 hours playtime

  120 of 140 achievements

• Aquilon: Lust Guild
  

  8.4 hours playtime

  30 of 30 achievements

• Cute Capybaras
  

  0.6 hours playtime

  22 of 22 achievements

See you next time and happy gaming in the meantime!

Well well well. Here I am yet again and for once with a full, honest-to-god review. Sequel to a game that managed to surprise me few years back as well. Now, I’m left struggling as what to play next given there’s both a CRPG and JRPG on my docket.

• REVIEW – Blood Lust and Snapping Jaws

Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter

( PC – Action, Adventure – 2025 ) + STEAM REVIEW

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Unlike the first game, it was left hanging in the air whether I would give Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter the full review. As you can see that side of the argument won. It was pretty tense, though. Some additions the sequel made didn’t exactly land that well for me.

Moving north from the familiar lands surrounding the Crimson Keep featured in the original, we step into the boots of Arlo. Bastard son and now Warden of the Wastes who will have to do his duty as dreaded Dark Wings return to put the entire region to the torch with far greater brutality than southern Frogs could ever dream. It falls on Arlo’s shoulders to unite the disparate races in order to resist the menacing tide. You might even find some unlikely yet familiar allies...

At its core, Tails of Iron 2 is a very familiar affair with some inclusions I’ll get into later. Provided you’ve played the last game there isn’t much to add here, but just in case you didn’t you can jump into this one perfectly fine as there’s no narrative continuity. You’ll miss out on some background and character info, but that’s to be expected.

You’re looking at a very Metroidvania-lite with greater emphasis on combat. I’d argue this one puts GREATER focus on the art of mettle, thanks to its expanded gear system, while the traversal is kinda pushed to the backside. You only need to unlock the heavy 2H weapon slot for the few breakable walls. In fact, I rescind the Metroidvania comparison – game is a 2D action adventure. Structurally you venture across half dozen distinct zones made up of separate screens. Fast travel via signposts does eventually become the norm here as you will have to re-visit areas for missions.

Souls-like combat and accompanying systems are also present even as equipment weight becomes the great equalizer determining how you approach encounters. Unlike the original I actually went along with dipping into medium from light loadout despite taking a mobility hit as it was worth the damage resistance gains. Old trusty “piss flask” is still with you letting you convert its contents into health as are kegs to refill it from.

Now for all the new stuff sequel decided to bring aboard and there’s a surprising amount of it, but nothing that outright amazed me as the great game changer.

Probably the biggest ones you’ll tangibly feel in moment-to-moment gameplay are the addition of i-frames and bonafide elemental system that applies to both your weapons and armor. Speaking of which, there’s a third armor slot – shoulders. You’d think this would be a phenomenal gain if added to what we had before, but Tales of Iron 2 honestly takes it too far by having too much gear without any real means of sorting through all of it or even knowing whether you have that particular helmet when buying from the shop, for example. Add to that 3-tier upgrades for EVERY piece of gear and you see how quickly this entire system turns into a mess. If I’m being generous it’s a hefty sidegrade where 80% of the gear will be left unused and waste of gorgeous art assets. Which is a damn shame.

Hey hey, I recognize that guy. Map gradually reveals itself as plot demands and you quick travel between regions via signposts.

Whiskers of Winter generally has a more ominous atmosphere, but some moody locations were sorely underutilized.

I wanted MORE stuff in the sequel. I just didn’t imagine it coming in the truckload of gear without any ability to sift through it all.

I II III

Also, there’s a day and night cycle now with its own enemy variety. Sadly, there’s also one horrendous decision I cannot fathom why they made: fighting bosses in phases where they run away at 30% health reduction phases. This is never fun, it just takes couple of fights for the novelty to wear off and for the player to realize “oh no, this is actually the norm”. At least it’s relegated to optional hunts even if it does the wind out of roaming bosses because you have to commit to hunt them down to the end. That is, if you want the crafting materials of which there are aplenty depending on enemy categories. Provided you REALLY cannot stand the crafting system I think you could get by with buying some equipment even though you won’t be taking advantage of the elemental resistance/damage system.

Before I move on from the subject of gameplay it is worth noting I found Tails of Iron 2 to be more challenging at the basic level although not necessarily for the reasons you may think. Naturally, stay on top of your gear progression as game will make you think you can get away with basic stuff until you start head butting. Where the actual “challenge” and annoyance came from was having more annoying enemy types. WereOwls as a whole can go die in a fire and Dark Wings also had a very dodgy types, especially when they came in groups. Some hit box nonsense notwithstanding I didn’t have problem with bosses proper.

Narratively this is a darker story as Arlo is less of an inexperienced youth the was Redgi was. You’re quickly put in the role of a Warden and determined to do your thing. Yes, you upgrade the castle and get your own services going. I wish the free expansion developers generously developed for the game, Blood & Brine, played a significant role when integrated into the main game itself. You do get some more boss fight, brand new zone and a fishing mini-game. To cap off the storytelling department I must say I didn’t really like the cliffhanger ending, but I suppose it means the third game is happening at some point?

Lastly there’s the matter of production where the game very much delivers in that familiar fashion. 2D artwork looks great with even more creativity going into designs as artists got to play around. There’s a staggering amount of assets that went into Arlo’s equipment specifically and Winter’s Edge looks great fully upgraded. If I had a critique it would be a more subdued and atmospheric soundtrack where only boss tracks really get to shine. Maybe that’s precisely what works for someone else.

Final Thoughts and Rating?

Sequel to a beloved game that could, Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter makes some bulky sidesteps that only somewhat work in its favor. Continuing in the same style of action adventure where a rat-turned-ruler has to save his realm from an invading horde, this time it’s Arlo from the North who must fend off Dark Wings. Souls-like combat in 2D format is nothing new, but game expands on the equipment system without including the means of sorting the newfound item galore. Introduction of retreating roaming bosses you must fight three times to beat is a puzzling decision that quickly grates on the nerves. You’ll make use of said equipment as there’s more trickier enemies to contend with. All things considered Tails of Iron 2 sadly falls just a notch under the original for me, though.

October 2026

Nothing got finished this month, which is spooky. We completed Rotwood main campaign in co-op but I continue playing it solo and hunting few more achievements.

Ongoing

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor

28.3 hours, 132 of 300 achievements

Rotwood

24.2 hours, no achievements

Entropy Survivors

22.6 hours, 20 of 26 achievements

Blasphemous 2

6.8 hours, 9 of 60 achievements

Progress

#34 OCTOBER 2026

Dark Souls III

46.7 hours playtime, 32 of 43 achievements

SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS

16.2 hours playtime, 29 of 40 achievements

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

2.9 hours playtime

Scars Above

8.5 hours playtime, 45 of 45 achievements

Progress Report #41: October 2026

• Games
• Added

November 2026

Soooo... November is finally here, and World of Warcraft: Forever is finally SO CLOSE to beeing released. But since it is a really chill variant of WoW, I hope I can find some time to play other games as well. I picked a good variation and some GA wins and community event games. Hope I can finish them between WoW-sessions!

Road to 100%

We are so close to the 100% in Big Walk and I really hope we will manage to hit them during November! Even tho it is lots of fun, I wanna be done with it, to play other coop stuff again.

Alice in Wonderland - a jigsaw puzzle tale

22.1 hours, 52 of 61 achievements

Big Walk

16.4 hours, 11 of 12 achievements

Coridden

0 hours, 0 of 42 achievements

To be Played

Picked out some games to chill and relax to, as well as some to play on steamdeck while cuddling up with the cats! Plus a bonus, for spooky season!

The Darkside Detective

1.1 hours, 2 of 30 achievements

Inscryption

0 hours, 0 of 40 achievements

The Walking Dead

0 hours, 0 of 48 achievements

RuneScape: Dragonwilds

0 hours, 0 of 50 achievements

A Tiny Sticker Tale

0 hours, 0 of 17 achievements

Teeny Tiny Trains

0.5 hours, 8 of 48 achievements

Coridden

0 hours, 0 of 42 achievements

No longer 100%

D4 still not beeing 100% again bugs me. But currently I don't really feel like playing it. So it might stay here for a bit longer. And for the other 2 an update ruined my 100% and im mad. But what can you do about it, right?

Diablo® IV

488.8 hours, 41 of 45 achievements

Mini Motorways

116 hours, 165 of 170 achievements

A Building Full of Cats

5.5 hours, 23 of 24 achievements

October 2026

Didn’t get much done this month, just finished two PoP games. Besides those I got back into No Man’s Sky and finished the newest Expedition.

Promise Mascot Agency

19 hours playtime

50 of 50 achievements (100%)

Lil' Guardsman

11 hours playtime

48 of 48 achievements (100%)

October 2026

• Well Dweller
  

  12.5 hours playtime

  41 of 41 achievements

  GAME
  PASS

• Black Jacket
  

  4.1 hours playtime

  27 of 42 achievements

  GAME
  PASS

• A Plague Tale: Requiem
  

  19.3 hours playtime

  22 of 35 achievements

  GAME
  PASS

• Buckshot Roulette
  

  0.5 hours playtime

  6 of 16 achievements

  GAME
  PASS

• Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy
  

  8.8 hours playtime

  18 of 36 achievements

  GAME
  PASS

• Neon Abyss 2
  

  19.8 hours playtime

  32 of 32 achievements

  GAME
  PASS

• ANNO: Mutationem
  

  8.4 hours playtime

  36 of 36 achievements

  GAME
  PASS

• Echo Weaver
  

  16.4 hours playtime

  22 of 40 achievements

  GAME
  PASS

• Shelldiver
  

  4.4 hours playtime

  12 of 12 achievements

  GAME
  PASS

• The Séance of Blake Manor
  

  15.8 hours playtime

  45 of 45 achievements

  GAME
  PASS

• ChromaGun
  

  3.4 hours playtime

  19 of 22 achievements

  

• Well Dweller: Some metroidvanias want their players to suffer. WD really really wants you to finish it, and in going overboard with the tools for you to do so has sanded off most of its edges. There’s multiple difficulty levels, and some configurable damage and timer settings, and more than enough trinkets which ultimately allow you to almost facetank almost any boss, plus locations of every collectable can be purchased. Actually collecting these takes more work, however, as unlike the combat most of the platforming is only made easier through ability upgrades (gained after beating bosses), and even then there’s many fair challenges. There’s also a bunch of save points, including immediately before each boss, and you get the ability to teleport between these fairly early. But if Well Dweller’s art and its first (and only really significantly original) unlock are its strongest elements, and its boss fights are only properly appreciable by those of strong-enough will to resist using the resources the game provides, then it’s weakest in its map design. Map logic is so very game-y, and there’s quite a few places where there are multiple routes that are both traversable with the same upgrades at that stage, and that have essentially no difference in skill needed. There’s also some unlockable “shortcuts”, many of which were pretty unnecessary because of the teleporting. Exploring would frequently leave me a little bemused at the redundant design. It’s possible that speedrunners and min-completionists might appreciate the overly flexible routing, but for a standard playthrough it just seems sloppy. 8-/10
• Black Jacket : Single-opponent Blackjack roguelite influenced by Balatro (and a little Slay the Spire), but different enough to be its own thing. Story was predictable, but gameplay was solid, and the card interactions interesting, though I’m not sure that decks are evenly balanced. Worth beating properly at level 1, but maybe not at the 20 NG+ levels (assuming that story elements are identical for the majority). 8/10
• A Plague Tale: Requiem: I finished Innocence, the first in the series, back in January 2023, and enjoyed it enough to start on this one a few months later, but bounced off it very quickly. I returned to it because Resonance was releasing and this one was departing Gamepass. What I have are a pile of gripes that I don’t think were as significant in its predecessor, and I’m certain that the main character is (deliberately) far less likable in this one, which is a critical problem in a game which needs you to connect emotionally with its leads. My issues include (but are definitely not limited to):
  • Requiem is 50% longer than Innocence, and deliberately slow at times to progress story and allow conversations to occur. These should have been edited down, and needed much more restraint. For example if we’re heading to a location, and an enemy says they’re heading there, we don’t need to say “…Isn’t that where we’re going?” There’s a fair bit of stating the bleeding obvious like that. We don’t need nearly as much talking while sprinting for our lives or hiding. Some of the areas could also have been compressed quite a bit without losing much.
  • The game is often a stealth game, but you won’t be doing too many stealth kills due to ammo restrictions and armour, and it’s easiest not to voluntarily get into combat, particularly in earlier chapters when abilities are weaker. Companions are useless at believably keeping out of sight: They will hide in the open, climb over barriers towards enemies, and chat while stealthing near enemies. Fortunately none of that attracts any notice. Enemies do change their behaviour when on notice, and this will likely mean that they will come to your vicinity (determined telepathically in some instances?) and move on a new and inconvenient patrol.
  • There’s naturally going to be a certain level of suspension of belief needed, because this is a game with sections can be puzzled through thanks to conveniently placed objects and routes, relatively short and sparse grass/weeds is (as usual) perfect for concealment, there’s psychic ability, and there’s not an ecological basis (or even anything like conservation of matter) in the ridiculous quantities of rats there are, but this is weirder and far less grounded than the first game, there’s at least one area (rats nest on the island) where there’s probably way too many skeletons for the location, there’s a sequence where I’m pretty sure you should have needed more than 8 people to be unnoticeable in disguise, and most of the sprints require things to occur improbably. 7/10
• Buckshot Roulette: An unpleasant little post-Inscryption game about playing Russian Roulette using a shotgun and a variable number of shells and blanks, with some objects each round that help stack the odds in your favour. I’m amazed that it didn’t receive an 18+ rating here, given that a core mechanic is shooting yourself in the head (and there are multiple achievements for successfully doing so), but I guess that the wowsers reserve that sort of rating for more enjoyable activities. Maybe there’s more fun to be had with multiple players. 6.5/10 for brevity.
• Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy: Now this, I enjoyed a lot more than Requiem. It’s a prequel featuring Sophia, a secondary character introduced there, which is definitely set in the same universe, but for this they decided that they wanted it to be more Tomb Raider than the first two games, and it’s even more removed from grounded reality overall than Requiem was from Innocence. The game has a higher focus on combat, and those sections are separated out from the stealth/sprint sections. You won’t be doing too many stealth kills other than a few ambushes to initiate a fight. Main gripes for this one are that the overwriting reappears noticeably towards the end, the motivations and actions of the Viper don’t really work for me, that Requiem does not set this up satisfactorily because of what Sophia did and didn’t say/do (yes, there’s a handwave), and above all I loathed something a character choice done in late game (leaving Leni to suffer, and not going back to at least check on/sit with/bury her once Asterion was cleared). 8+/10
• Neon Abyss 2: A roguelite shooter that does not improve on its predecessor nearly enough to make it feel more than a Neon Abyss 1.5, and I feel that NA1 might have been rather more enjoyable. This story is window dressing. Its unlockable side activities are mostly tedious filler. Its screen is frequently hard to read, both from weapon spam, and when there’s a gigantic lingering pop-up that covers much of the screen after you pick up an item. It has a bunch of wackiness and combinations, and is mindless enough fun, but it’s all just rather hollow. Currently “complete” in terms of achievements, but who knows how long that will last with only one character used, and perhaps a quarter of the unlocks still available. 7/10
• Anno Mutationem: AM is a bit of a mess. Its world feels nicely cyberpunk, and its combat is reasonable, though enemies can be spongy. The gameplay, on the other hand, is a melange, and takes quite a while to get past the fetch and scan quests, chatting, and bartending minigame to the main game, which has some of the grammar of a metroidvania but isn’t really. At that point you will be moving between 2d combat rooms and 2.5d navigation rooms, unlocking a bunch of shortcuts which you mostly won’t be using, travelling excessively through corridors, walking slowly from time to time to deal with plot, and unlocking abilities which you’ll need going forward, but won’t really be revisiting previous areas. You won’t have enough resources to unlock everything (though there is an NG+ mode), and unless you are good, you’ll be spending a fair amount on healing items rather than equipment. A bug incorrectly gave me a number of achievements, and the time played also stopped being measured at some point. 7.5/10
• Echo Weaver: A rather clever timeloop metroidbrainia (max 13 minutes) with some fair challenges on your way to discovering its secrets. Combat is very limited and skippable, there are no boss fights, and the time pressure becomes less of an issue as you progress - essentially treat each loop as a limited expedition. There’s a few things I didn’t ‘discover, and a number of others (including various “races”) where the time crunch was too much, but the main-line quest is certainly very doable, with only a couple of rather hard platforming challenges (which get significantly easier with discoveries). 9/10
• Shelldiver: This is in absolutely no way a good game or even a proper challenge, but it is a cute second screen numbers-go-up one that scratches that terrible Skinner Box itch. You take your submarine to shoot jellyfish, mine resources, trade in the jellyfish for shells, and improve your abilities to be able to shoot and trade more jellyfish and mine more resources. 7/10
• The Séance of Blake Manor: A pretty good detective game, though occasionally finding the necessary clue that is blocking progress can be a bit of an irritant when you already know what you need to ask/accuse from other clues/context. Time pressures are really only significant for the first two hours. When I went back to finish up much of what I had missed, the 44 minutes my oldest save had left before point of no return let me save 8 people and complete another mystery with time to spare. 8.5/10
• Chromagun: A psychotic commentator running an experiment as a frame for a puzzle game was likely well and truly tired at its release in 2016 given that Portal 2 was out half a decade before it. The puzzles are reasonably good overall, as you manoeuvre coloured balls onto sensors by painting walls and floors a matching hue. Its biggest design flaw is that some levels chunk unrelated puzzles, which results in extra work if you die at a later stage, but other issues are also ones generally avoided by Portal: The difficulty is a little lumpy so some later levels can be quite a bit easier than some earlier ones; there’s no verticality, so levels can be a bit spread out and opaque; and the physics of a late-game mechanic seem a little random. 8/10 (Steamgifts win)

Stats End of October

Overall

Overall statistics

Monthly change

Overall wins statistics

Monthly change

Yearly Challenges

Yearly Challenge 2026 - Simulations

Finish all games on the Secret Santa 2025 list

Beat all least 50% of the games on the Runs on a Toaster list 🎆

Beat all least 50% of the games on the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Play Them list

Beat all least 50% of the games on the Trust Issues list

Beat all least 75% of the games on the Old wins list

Beat all least 50% of the games added in 2025