This is an incredible game from start to finish. I actually had the PS4 disc for quite a while but never got to play it… and by the time I was thinking of finally starting it Sony announced the PC port! While a part of me is sad I slept on this game for so long, a part is relieved because this PC port is absolutely the best version of the game you can play. The story is well-told, combat is super fun and so are the traversal and platforming sections inbetween them. Sure there are minor issues like the side content being a bit of a mixed bag with slightly uneven pacing compared to the main story, and a rather annoying fast travel system, but the game does so many things right they can be easily overlooked. It's undoubtedly one of the best games of the last console generation. I'm happy more people will get to experience this now that it's on PC.

Possibly Quantic Dreams best game yet. The game doesn't exactly tread new territory and ask new questions in terms of the subject matter. Especially when you consider the same themes have been addressed far better in many books and movies. But it's still... something. There are actual consequences to your decisions that go beyond window dressing, and some decisions are so far reaching they completely change the outcome of major events. Sure, sometimes it feels overacted and a bit pretentious, but it still has heart. I like the flowchart shown after each chapter showing how people globally (or just your steam friends) chose a particular option. The character animations are some of the best I've seen in any game. I'm cautiously excited about Quantic Dreams next game, hopefully they can deliver something even better than Detroit. While I did finish the story, it absolutely warrants a second or even a third playthrough. Hoping to do that next month...

I generally liked this collection of two games (especially Evoland 2) and their central gimmick. But both games get quite frustrating towards the end. Some of the puzzles aren't clever or fun at all, they're just tedious and feel like unnecessary padding. Despite all those issues, I can forgive Evoland 2 quite a bit since it has a massive amount of Chrono Trigger references and that is my favorite game of all time :P

This is a much, much better game than the first one. Not just because hexagons are bestagons (they are), but because the puzzles are much more enjoyable to solve. The music is nice too.

I didn't like this as much as Cats Organized Neatly. Not just because I like cats more than dogs, but the gameplay is basically exactly the same, plus the dogs themselves are weirdly shaped and don't look that cute at all.

Just something to pass the time while God of War was being downloaded. Puzzles were easy enough save for the last few levels, where the difficulty ramped up a bit.

A short and sweet puzzle game that never outstays its welcome. I actually played this ages ago on my phone. Discovered that all 4 games are available on steam and bought them immediately. I didn't play the other 3 in any form yet so this will be a fun journey.

For better or worse, I'm marking FH5 as completed for now. While I didn't do literally everything that's possible in the game, I played it quite a lot. Currently it's my most played game on steam, which speaks volumes about how much I enjoyed it. Sure, the game still is a bit buggy (as is typical of all AAA releases these days), but that didn't hamper me much. Patches improved it quite a bit from the mess it was at launch, and I'm sure it'll be in a far better state in 2022. I'll still check back on the game for the weekly rewards and may even try to 100% it someday, but I really, really should focus on other games on my backlog :P

This is a fascinating game. The artstyle and presentation are mindblowingly good (for an indie), and the central mystery is intriguing. I played it a bit but I think I may have to put off playing other games when I want to complete it because it requires a bit more thinking than your average detective game.

It's incredible just how good FH5 is to play. I normally don't even like racing games (haven't played one since what… Burnout Paradise back in 2008?) but this is something special. Perfect for just chilling a bit and driving around doing stuff like chasing random goals and completing a few races here and there. Graphically it looks stunning and runs quite well; sometimes I just drive to take screenshots. Unfortunately the multiplayer is rather buggy at this point. It's not very frustrating to me since I play solo 95% of the time but still a major caveat of the game currently. Patches are hopefully coming soon since devs are listing the vast majority of bugs publicly in an issue tracker. Once it gets patched well, it can become even better.

I played it quite a bit, but I still have lots of stuff left to do. Even by open world standards, the sheer volume of content is impressive.

I didn't play it much but I really liked what I saw. Such a shame the shadow of the aggressively mediocre live-service Avengers game kind of tarnished this game before it even launched. It's basically as close to a Cowboy Bebop game we can get today with a Marvel touch. I originally thought the different likenesses used for the guardians compared to the MCU versions would be a problem, but it absolutely isn't. It also is one of the best looking games released this year and looks utterly stunning with every setting maxed out. The gameplay so far is a bit standard third person action/adventure stuff but it's good enough to carry the story and characters. I hope I can finish playing it next month, once I get bored of Forza.

It was quite pleasant to go back to the game when I discovered the developer added new achievements. Such a charming, wholesome experience. My only gripe with the game is that it indeed is quite short even if you try to do everything. Still, the shortness works quite well in its favor.

This got a pretty substantial update with a bunch of new levels, which I liked quite a bit. Always nice to see developers adding free content long after the launch.

I guess this is the only 'new' game I completed this month. I found Alicemare just not that interesting, especially when I was coming with rather high expectations from playing LiEat. It's merely average at best in terms of story and characters.

It's pretty short but rather amazing. An uplifting yet bittersweet story, great art, and a fantastic soundtrack all make it so worthwhile. And this was the developers first game!

I liked Arise quite a lot despite its flaws regarding the story and gameplay. While it doesn't come close to the greatest JRPGs ever made, it's still a solid game all around. Really enjoyed 100%ing it.

A well-crafted and very faithful adaptation of H. P. Lovecraft's short shory. It's more of an experience than a game yet I think it's very much worth playing for horror fans of any kind. And Halloween was the perfect time to play it!

Hmmmm…. I'm a bit conflicted on D5 now that I've done pretty much everything there is to do in the game. The core gameplay loop is solid, perhaps the best in all Disgaea games (haven't played 6 yet so I don't know if that's any better). But the story is tonally very weird and like I said last month when I started it, none of the characters except maybe the protagonist are interesting enough to care about. That kind of diminishes the 'soul' of the game in my opinion. Despite all that, it was a fun grind and the postgame content was challenging enough to test the knowledge of all the subsystems of the game, which I liked.

Kind of getting tired of all the same-y Ubermosh games (It was my mistake to play 5 of them already 🤣). These games are more of a mod of the original game. That's not a bad thing per se, but I would've liked some more substantial gameplay changes by now…

This game is fun, fun, fun! I utterly adore the artstyle and the zany humor sprinkled everywhere. While it's short, I really enjoyed every second of that time. My review on Steam.

I played TWD quite a bit back in December last year, but kinda got sidetracked to playing other stuff once I built my new PC. Finally revisited it and finished it. The journey as a whole was rather depressingly bleak, but at least it's very well written with characters that behave quite realistically (given their… unusual circumstances). It was also pretty neat to see the statistics of each choices after you finish them. I made some unusual ones 😅

Ah, Trine. It still looks just as amazing even though it was released more than a decade ago. The platforming is quite fun, the combat unfortunately less so. As a whole I really enjoyed 100%ing it, although some cheevos were downright sadistic. The consensus seems to be that Trine 2 is just as good, 3 is horrible, and 4 is a return to form for the series. I might play 2 someday.

Just as weird as the other Rusty Lake games. Maybe even weirder than the rest. I enjoyed the whole family tree aspect and following those strange people throughout their lives. There's a very interesting puzzle near the end that was quite impressive in its depth and scope.

I liked this first game much more than the sequel, story-wise. It tackles a very interesting subject that very few games ever do, and asks some interesting questions.

Compared to the first game, this one is much more introspective in exploring the consequences of the main characters actions. I didn't like this direction that much but at least it had a satisfying conclusion. Gameplay wise, 2 is much much better though. Since this is a direct sequel to the first game, I recommend playing both in one go for maximum impact.

This was… alright? I loved the stylistic presentation. The writing was good too… but I didn't enjoy it that much for some reason. Plus there's a lot of backtracking (although I imagine real detective work does involve that a lot).

Despite the lack of extra content found in other editions of FF1, this is an excellent version of the game (and right now the only way to play FF1 on Steam officially, as far as I know). The port is excellent, the remastered pixelart is really nice to look at, and it runs perfectly fine without any stutters or framedrops. What surprised me the most was the remastered music, which is easily the best aspect of the game. Uematsu himself oversaw the remastering effort and it shows, the music perfectly captures the spirit of the NES original tunes but improves upon them in every conceivable way. Sure, there are some minor issues like the weird font that seems to be in the wrong aspect ratio, but it's easily fixable by replacing a couple of files in the game directory (see my screenshots on how the fixed font looks!). Plus there are mods already that add quality of life features like fastforward and even ones that replace the sprites with other versions of the game. Now I'm really looking forward to the FF4 and 6 pixel remasters… those two are my favorite SNES-era FFs.

Enjoyed this game in many ways, mostly for the emotional story and great characters. The narration being so well-done helps elevate the game far above your standard indie platformer.

Finally finished doing everything there is to do in Wargroove! While the game mechanically isn't as great as Advance Wars, I found the story bits, art style, and characters fun. The puzzle and arcade modes offer challenges that are so satisfying to complete. Despite me taking like one year to complete this game, the journey was very much worth my time :D

Have some mixed feelings about this one. The art and the world design is utterly fantastic, the puzzles much less so. I played through the majority of the game last year and practically gave up on one puzzle… only now found the will to go back. While there is a hint system, it isn't as good as it should be, and if you're stuck in a puzzle that the hint doesn't cover… good luck. Ah well, finished the game now and (mostly) enjoyed the ride.

I loved playing the first FRAMED game on my phone years ago, so getting this version with the sequel included was kind of a no-brainer. As expected, FRAMED 2 was better than the first game in terms of story and music and I'm looking forward to the developers next game if it ever happens.

A collection of 3 short JRPGs. Interesting stories (especially the third one), good art, and nice cast of characters. I'll be sure to check out other games from this developer!

Finally finished this! The game is basically a better version of the UBERMOSH games, except it's even harder. Took me more than a month to finally unlock everything but the journey was well worth it.

Really liked this unique take on the jigsaw puzzle. Pretty relaxing and I definitely want to try out the sequel in the future.

I liked this unique, 3D take on Minesweeper. It's not as challenging as Hexcells, but it's still really satisfying to solve the levels with purely logic.

Nice little Lovecraftian point-and-click adventure. The piano score is well done. At first I thought the 'big pixels' style of graphics would be distracting but it works quite well in the context of the game and manages to even be a little spooky at times.

Part 2 is slightly better than Part 1, simply because it concludes the story neatly. The expanded scope of the game is also a big improvement.

This is a pretty cute little clicker game. I normally tend to avoid this genre but this being so short was actually quite appealing to me.

I enjoyed this game quite a lot. Between playing other games that require way more effort, this was a nice way to relax. My only issue with this game was the cats were mostly not animated much :( On the other hand, if they actually behaved like real world cats, finding them would be much harder :P

Good enough. Not that challenging (I feel like this is going to be a common complaint for almost all of this developers games I finished this month).

Fun little game. Again, not that challenging.

For a free game this was not bad at all. Rather unique idea controlling a water droplet that progressively gets smaller with every step. Each level is a rush to the end because of that and the collectibles were a nice enough challenge.

This one was rather average… I didn't find the puzzles that challenging :|

Eh. The game isn't as good as the steam reviews would indicate. Some builds are way too OP if you get lucky (lifeleech anyone?), the controls aren't that responsive, and I still can't get over the weird way your main character 'walks' (more like hops) around the world. Was a fair bit challenging for some early bosses but later became way too easy.

Interesting concept, but not that good of a game as a whole. Levels start to get boring really fast and the mechanics are a bit trial-and-error.

This just isn't as good or even as challenging as the developers other puzzle games. It gets repetitive and tedious really fast, and the entire game basically feeling like a port from a mobile version doesn't help.

Meh. Bought it on a whim because of cats. Unfortunately the game (more like a collection of minigames actually) really isn't that good. Controls are horribly unresponsive and I always felt like I was performing some arcane ritual when trying to do something the game wanted. Just shows that I should not be overly predisposed towards playing games with cats no matter what :/

This is easily the best version of Tetris in years. There is so much stuff to do and the game is so well-made (granted, Tetris already was kind of perfect to begin with) it's almost unbelievable. The music and visuals in Journey mode are amazing. There's multiplayer (PvE and PvP, hahaha) which is fun to play with both friends and strangers alike. Alongside gazillions of modes that each twist the classic Tetris gameplay in interesting ways. Even the VR mode is fantastic when I tried it out with my friends PS4 + PSVR combo. I don't have a PC VR headset at the moment but this will probably the first game I try when I finally buy one.

At long last I finished Act 4 with the Silent, and Act 3 with the Watcher. Watcher is a rather interesting class but I'd still say the Silent is my favorite simply because I can somehow find decks that synergize far easier than other classes.

Enjoyed this the most out of my July games. This is really not a golf game as much as it is a complete mockery of one. Absolutely jam packed with references, parodies and most importantly, puns! My review on Steam.

Rating: 9/10

While I normally avoid hidden object games, this is something rather unique! I love the sound design and how you need to interact with the game much more than usual to find stuff.

Rating: 8/10

Cute little puzzle game although it's rather short. It is also undoubtedly the best looking LEGO game out there right now. Few games use raytracing well enough to make a substantial visual difference: this is one of those rare ones. Screenshots don't do it complete justice, in motion it looks a hundred times better just because of the dynamic (and accurate!) lighting, shadows and reflections. It does come at a significant performance cost to run this on everything ultra with all RT effects on but DLSS saves the day again. I'm just happy I got a locked 60fps @ 1440p with my system 😅

Rating: 7.5/10

Trippy puzzle game. Although it's ridiculously easy it's still a fun ride. Shame I can't try out the VR version right now due to having no headset yet, but I'll be sure to revisit this in VR in the future!

Rating: 7/10

Basically a math game 😐 Took me a while to finish this one perfectly since some of the levels do get a bit tricky to solve flawlessly…

Rating: 7/10

I love the central gimmick of the game: solving jigsaw-like puzzles to unlock artwork. The artwork itself is rather mysterious and evocative which adds to the charm. Shame it's a barebones mobile port…

Rating: 6.5/10

Neat concept for such a simple game. Enjoyed finishing it but it does get progressively harder the more you go on.

Rating: 6.5/10

Pretty simple minimalist puzzle game. Gets slightly challenging in the last couple of levels, and even then it isn't that hard at all.

Rating: 6/10

SG Win. I enjoyed this the most out of all I finished this month. Difficult to say everything I liked about this game in a short blurb like this, so I'll link to my review on Steam.
Rating: 8.5/10

Another SG Win 🥳 This is a brilliantly designed minesweeper-style game but with hexes. While it jumps in difficulty quite fast, every bit of information you need to complete each level without any mistakes is always provided. It's so satisfying to solve. This was the first Hexcells game I played; looking forward to checking out the others someday.
Rating: 8.0/10

Charming little game. Shame that the devs closed their studio due to (mostly) financial reasons. We probably won't ever get a proper sequel or even another game from them. At least they released two demos of unfinished games they were working on.
Rating: 7.5/10

Almost forgot I finished this. Playtime is a bit inaccurate because I alt-tabbed out a lot… ah well. All the UBERMOSH games are extremely similar and it's better to think them as a single game with many variations. Doesn't make the game any less enjoyable though, I love how fast-paced the thing is and it's such a rush when you actually win.
Rating: 7.0/10

Interesting platformer with a somewhat unique gimmick. For something that's free to play, it's not bad at all.
Rating: 6.0/10

Finished! It was a charming little game. Such a shame that the devs closed their studio due to (mostly) financial reasons. We probably won't ever get a proper sequel or even another game from them. At least they released two demos of unfinished games they were working on. Rating: 7.5/10.

Eeeeh…. not sure how to feel about this one. It's fun with friends, obviously (but then again, what game isn't?). But it has too little content and gets repetitive and monotonous much faster than I expected it to. The wonky controls, intentional or not, only serve to increase the frustration. Rating: 6/10.

I'm niering (excuse the horrible pun) the end. Really can't focus on Mass Effect when I have this unfinished. Totally looking forward to finishing it! If you call feeling horribly depressed something to look forward to...

Who knew a game with squares and rectangles could be this cute? Add a fantastic narrator to that and you got an awesome platformer.