Mid-month update, with new additions

Games were a bit shorter than expected, got through them fast. Will focus on the new additions for the rest of the month.

The first game I’ve gifted on steam, still the best co-op game we’ve played.

It’s aged really well, just as enjoyable as the first playthrough. Considering going for achievements just to unlock additional lines of dialog. Four years passed since my last experience with Portal, even with my terrible memory puzzles clicked almost instantly. There are 83 developer comments in the game, not sure in what ratio are they divided between the single player and co-op part. Their focus is the reasoning behind design choices, modifications that were made based on their initial play tests.

Initially bought it for the multiplayer on a good deal, but lost interest quite fast. The campaign was a really good experience, fast paced gameplay, great graphics and voice acting (feat Kevin Spacey, Troy Baker). The story is predictable, lots a QT events and explosions, it felt like watching an action movie.

A lot better than the overall score might suggest.

In Shelter 2 you play a mother lynx and experience the circle of life. Had to restart it a couple of times but eventually figured it out and made it to the end (with 2 cubs surviving, wolf attacks and crossing a frozen lake resulted in casualties #sad). The art style and the soundtrack’s beautiful, the emotional impact is there (not as strong as some reviews indicated, this is subjective). Enjoyable for a playthrough, the positives outweigh the repetitive and limited gameplay.

Complete challenges in an open-world to level up your license, the burnout license being the top one to complete the game. My main focus were the races, while each one starts out at different spots, every one of them ends at the same 4-5 location, not a challenge once you familiarize yourself with the map. Played road rage (take down x cars) and marked man (go from A to B while staying alive) events to make up any missing points. Didn’t do much stunt runs as those were the most punishing.

Apart from the horrible fixed camera angle (had to wedge a coin on the “home” button to force a better viewing angle) and somewhat repetitive races (events reset after each license, you complete the same events with different cars), a really good arcade racer with lots of content.

New additions:

Got the first tier bundle for Enslaved, and managed to trade for Abzu and Ryse: Son of Rome.

Also bought the humble monthly just to trade it, no idea why Warhammer has such a high trade value/demand, some are paying the full monthly price for it on steam trades. I’ll get the rest of the games for free (minus fees, went for keys myself). Not a bad deal at all.