No One Lives Forever is delightful. It plays like how I imagine people remember Goldeneye as. All the goofy spy shenanigans, none of the N64 jank. Might be a bit simplistic as a shooter, but the mission variety makes up for it.

Looks like Cold Steel IV finally has a release date on PC and is coming out on April 9th. Now the PC peeps can finally experience my GotY of 2020. It's a baller of a time, you only need to play 400 hours of RPGs to get the most out of it!

I've been playing Thief 2014 and I wasn't expecting the first damn newspaper to talk about how stopping a plague is everyone's responsibility and that both the sick and healthy should adhere to curfew. This is not how I want life to imitate art.

Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath is a game that plays into the American fantasy of using your rugged individuality to pay off your medical bills. There's a concept for a game with some cultural staying power.

The internet continues to bring about the weirdest of things. Never would I have expected this to exist.

So, uhh, if anyone wants to read a good 4000 words about my backlog digging, you can do that over at the cblogs. If not, may I suggest you listen to this random piece of the Zwei 2 OST?

I don't know about you, but I'm gonna collapse into my bed watching/listening to this translation of the Trails in the Sky drama CD. One can never have too many shenanigans involving Estelle and Tita.

With All4One done, I've finally played all non-mobile Ratchet games. Not the best game to end on, but it was surprisingly decent in spite of the co-op crap. It's quite varied and sorta funny. Still, I hope Rift Apart will be a return to form.

I haven't played something as delightful as Fortune Summoners in quite a while. There's just something about Japanese indie PC games of this ilk like Zwei, Chantelise, Recettear, Gurumin, early Ys and Fairy Bloom Freesia that ticks most of my boxes.

Furry propaganda or not, I'm really enjoying Dust: An Elysian Tail. The fancy presentation and full voice acting surprised me. Fidget is somehow funny to boot, so props for that. The combat and crafting system are really nice too. What a good game.

The next game on my backlog hitlist is Bastion. I'm almost done with it and I understand why it's so beloved. Currently rocking the DoT machete and bow to great success. The story and lore isn't doing much for me, but the vibe it gives off is excellent.

Assuming I can't get a PS5 and Silksong remains a no-show, Ys IX will be my GotY by default, which is fine by me. I still need to play 8, but I played 4 Trails games last year, so I can handle a mere 2 Ys games no problem.

Coming off the LotR games I played before, Lego Ninjago floored me with how much better it is. There's a mostly free camera, a combo system, Prince of Persia platforming, faster movement, less nightmarish collectibles and ground pounds for every character

I've played tons of games derived from Arkham Asylum, so it was high time I actually played it. Surprising no one, it's quite good. But I couldn't get the hang of combat, everything feels backwards. And boy does the boss diversity suck.

The micro services job test I got has claimed a good piece of my soul and I've effectively given up, which is a first for me for these kinds of tests. I think I'll put micro services alongside graphics in the pile of fields I want nothing to do with.

I've been flung face-first into the world of micro services for a recruitment test I'm doing and I'm kind of in awe at how lost I feel. I'm just barely able to internalize it. You'd think 3 years of studying computer science would give me more of an edge

I knew Rime was ICO-adjacant, but it manages to have its identity in spite of that. The puzzles and art is great, though I didn't gel with the story and music as much. Really high amount of polish though. Still wouldn't say it's worth the full price.

Little Nightmares was a nice little horror game. Probably what I'd tell people to start with if they want to explore the genre. It has its scary parts, but it's not a pants-darkener.

Seeing Dark Souls with balanced mechanics and actually cool spells combined with Halo maps is a sight for sore eyes. I love From for what they do, but they are awful at balancing. I'd tell them to hire this man, but I think the Halo devs need him more.

Yooka-Laylee is the first game I've had to put in 720p. Unity is some shit. But ignoring that (and some bosses), the game is pretty good. Given its reputation, I expected far worse. But no, it's just a traditional 3d platformer full of neat ideas.

I got a coding test from a stock market company and it just so happens to involve shortselling. How very topical.

I somehow missed that Persona 5 Strikers was coming out on PC. Or maybe my brain rejected the notion of Atlus releasing the sequel of a game on a platform that doesn't have the original game. AGAIN!

I need to get through the Yakuza Collection and replay 5. This song is fire!

Guacamelee was better than I thought it'd be. It's not as limited as Pirate's Curse, though it's still quite linear. The grappling is fun, but most of the jokes fell flat. Reference humor be like that. This poster caught my eye though.

I just figured out that you can actually subscribe to Disqus threads and get notifications for comments. Something I've wanted to do for ages. I'm not sure it'll work, but I'll be glad to retract some Disqus criticism if it means I won't miss comments.

Stories: The Path of Destinies is a weird mix of Bastion, Arkham Asylum and Shadow the Hedgehog. It also confuses references for clever writing. It's no roguelite, but I still think it'd be better if they didn't try to gun for replayability.

Coming from Fallout 1, Shadowrun Returns was one hell of a mechanical upgrade. While I still had issues clicking on stuff, the combat and progression was much more sensible. Awfully limited as a roleplaying experience though.

Going through Ace Attorney 1 again reminded my just how much the series styles all over other VNs. The animations add a lot, the music is great, it's consistently funny and even has gameplay. The trilogy port is such a good package.

Thanks to a lazy Google search I accidentally found out that Gant is a brand that sells swimming trunks. And now I can only assume that was the intended pun of the swimming-infatuated Ace Attorney character. I love this stupid series.

Alpha Protocol is some goofy bullshit. It exists in the middle ground between Spy Fiction and Metal Gear and it has thrown me for a loop with how cheap yet functional it feels. Micael Bell is a supporting character though, which is always nice.