Belated August rundown of games played

Main courses

Yet again the star of the month was Hollow Knight, as got my bearings and got the hidden endings and did a bunch of extra stuff. While I’m not particularly good at the game, this was fun, even if in the platform hell area I got partially carried by an item combination which grants infinite heals.

The next big one was Tesla vs Lovecraft, which racked up quite a notable amount of playtime in spite of (or perhaps because) it’s a very simple twin-stick arena shooter with some balancing issues to the upgrades. It’s fun and I’m glad I won it, but not sure if I’d have felt I got my money’s worth if I bought it full price.

Retook Environmental Station Alpha and it was a mixed bag. It’s a good game, but it’s greatly overhyped in the Metroidvania community, where some major flaws get overlooked. I think I dropped this one for the month just after the fifth or sixth boss. The fifth one wasn’t too hard (slightly annoying with three phases with some a few attacks that can easily hit you), but the other one not only was deceiving in how it was to be fought (it seems it can only be hit when it exposes a weak spot, but no) but the nearest save point is not obvious (with the previous one being separated from the room by a laborious path).

I had a weird experience with Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams. It’s an old game and seemingly more complex games run fine on my current main PC, but it suddenly decided to act badly on it, even levels which had previously run just fine. Had to install it on my laptop, but it ended up playing. Didn’t play all that much beyond the requirement for the group given the experience (and the fact that it’s not that good), but will come back to it sometime later.

Beat the rest of Starman, which wasn’t all that much (some of the chapters were unexpectedly short). As mentioned previously, it’s a very zen game, and while not all puzzles are winners, the experience it worth it. Glad a weirdly specific SteamDB search brought it to my attention. I guess the game had a bonus chapter after that which I might tackle later.

Side dishes

I don’t remember if purely out of Playing Appreciated requirements or self-imposed rules (more likely the former), played a some more of BLACKHOLE. While that awful chase sequence did give me about half an hour more of trouble (take note, the successful run is less than three minutes long, but it’s got just one checkpoint), the next set of levels was comparatively more interesting, though the unflattering combination of physics and resulting controls still isn’t exactly winning me over. There’s an interesting plot going on, but the gameplay itself (I guess I could throw my honour away and just rush the levels at minimum, but then I’d feel it mocking me).

Played a short chunk (about two chapters?) more of Lara Croft GO, and I could have sworn I’d have beaten it, but apparently there’s even more to it after what you assume is the game’s boss. The puzzles are good, even if they often get solved in slightly brute force ways, and some of the “hidden object” collectibles result in replaying segments.

I backed Crowsworn on Kickstarter, and though I’d have gotten a free key, I decided to buy Unworthy from its celebratory sale as it was at a nice discount. Played a bit of it (a chunk of the area after the first boss), and it was alright. After playing some Soulsvanias which lack a stamina gauge I did find myself more than a couple of times getting hit by mismanaged attacks/dodges, but the game is interesting. It’s just that some of the other ‘vanias kept me sidetracked.

Replayed the bulk of Rusty Lake Hotel, as it now features achievements. I kinda screwed up getting full stars. This one may get revisited a few other times in order to 100% the achievements, though sadly some of the puzzles can get somewhat busyworky.

Played less just shy of Deepest Sword, but I think I was either on the final or penultimate “level” of it. It’s a lil’ charming awkward controls, physics game where you use a sword which keeps getting larger. NGL, I think I ragequit the final time. It’s not Getting Over It in terms of progress getting undone by mistakes, just harder.

Minor progress

Oh Peregrin. As stated in a previous journal entry, it’s not perfect (some of the solutions are not obviously wrong so you spend a fair amount of time repeating minor actions trying to get a favourable alignment), but its plot is fairly good so it keeps you going. Sadly ended up in a combat sequence which seems particularly hard to script (combat in this game one of those weird semi-turn based things and involves pitting enemies against each other, so it can get complicated).

In theory I should have finished Thomas Was Alone a long time ago, and I’m in what I assume is the final chapter. But I get occasional random (?) lag in some levels, and this one (which involves moving all of the player characters into spots around the room) gave me more trouble than I expected. There’s a few tips online which I haven’t applied since usually a restart is enough, but I just might need them to finish.

“Also played”

My current main computer doesn’t handle Trüberbrook the best. It gets somewhat slowed down in regular segments, but stutters like crazy during cutscenes. Might at some point try in the laptop; it’s just that what little I played didn’t give me the best impression.

Glorkian Warrior: The Trials Of Glork was a couple of runs (no new unlockables) and tried opening Sherlock Holmes versus Jack the Ripper, had it not load my file as expected (or maybe I got impatient), and then I forgot to keep playing it. The latter shows its age but the two stock characters and some of the original ones are just well played enough to keep one semi-hooked.