Here, you'll find up to 20 of the most recent posts from the people who have the good taste to follow my blog. Only public results gleaned from the last 200 overall posts to HG Blogs will be displayed. If you see no results below, that means not a lot of people are following me, or my followers haven't been active in a long while, or they simply aren't sharing their posts.
 | A test of failing memory more than a discussion of video games. |
Alone in the Dark.
I wrote this series off after Illumination. I said so in my review of that game. There's no coming back from this, I said. But it did come back. Here's the twist ending: I'm glad it did. This is a good game. No one saw that coming.
Batman: Arkham Knight
Knight is probably my least preferred Arkham game. It invests harder in being a sandbox and loses a lot in the process. There's no grand boss fights, for example, but it does surprise in other ways. Gradually filling up the jail with random thugs and defeated super villains is really satisfying.
BROK The InvestaGATOR:
Little known fact - I love a good pun. This is a game about a P.I. alligator, taking on small sleuthing jobs in a point and click that also is a side scrolling brawler.
Deep Fear
| Talk about setting a DEAD-line.... |
It's fair to say I've not been the conveyor belt of reviews that I was once upon a time, but I always kind of made an effort for dropping a horror review on Halloween. And this year is no different; that was 100% my plan. The only issue is the seemingly perfect game I picked up to write about is a cringy bowl of arse, and I don't want to play it anymore (which is a statement of itself when I limped through Heavy Rain one year). So, to try and salvage something, I'll present a list of the applicable horror games I've played in recent memory enough below. Instead of voting - because maybe two people will read this in the first place - whoever gives the best reason for covering one of these games will make it my choice. Feel to also say nothing, and I'll carry on playing through the Lucas
| Part 1 - Let's see how long I keep this up. |
Star Wars Unleashed.
Force powers are ridiculous overkill, which makes up for the bland lightsaber combat in spades. Lot of imagination in the alien worlds and set pieces, worlds apart for the dull mess modern Star Wars has become.
Kuon.
Just the 20 years post-release. Kuon is clumsy mechanically, but is an aesthetically excellent horror. It's subtle and clever in how it creeps you out. As an experience, it's great. As a game, it's bumpy.
Dreamweb.
Dreamweb's gameplay never quite reaches the potential it sets up for itself. A regular guy starts hearing voices that he has to kill seven evil people to save the world. Is he a savior for doing so, or just a psychopath? DW plays around the edges of the concept, but never truly commits.
Helltown
| I'll go ahead and assume I won't need to do one of these again this year. |
For the most part, my gaming habits is simply to attack the backlog I've accumulated over years, no longer buying games I think I'll get around to and focusing on actually playing those games in the past I'll assume I'll get around to. I've tried to write about them a little because I want to try and find a way where I can still write a bit in enough moderation to not be in constant pain. 2010 Gary would call me a pussy. I may do this more next year, I may do this less. I don't know what the future holds. However, what I do have is three lists talking about the games I've played this year and, to test if anyone still reads the things I write, I propose this. The first person to post a game they would like to see me review in these lists, I will attempt to do so. First come, first se
| The always inferior sequel |
BERSERK and the Band of the Hawk
It's fine for what it is. Most of the time, the Warriors template works because Guts mowing down endless cannon-fodder fits, but it's such a toned-down retell of the forever manga.
Griffith remains an encourageable rascal.
Forspoken
Never -- NEVER -- has my pathological need to play famously shit games burnt me as hard as this did. Its reputation, dear friends, is richly deserved.
I Made a Game With Zombies In It
Those glorious bastards; they released this cornerstone of the excellent XBLI scene on Steam and have done it for free. Finding this carving a new playerbase has made me very happy.
Lost Door
| I've declared war on my backlog again this year. The graveyard is as follows: |
11th Hour
7th Guest was a better realised haunted mansion game, but 11th Hour is more self aware. Better written, better acted and (occasionally) purposefully funny.
Not a particularly good port.
7th Guest
The B-Movie horror point and click game. Weird live action actors and bizarre puzzles made this a game I adored back when it was released, but the steam ‘remastered’ is not great. It’s just a port of the mobile port. Why does this keep happening?
Batman Arkham Origins
Last Xmas seemed like a good time to play the Xmas Batman. It might be the black sheep of the Arkhams but it's still a lot of fun with some stand out ideas. The crime scene examinations, for example, are great.
Batman: Arkham Origins - Cold, Cold Heart
 | A few reasons why |
Just wanted to make a small, quick post about it in case anyone is confused.
Quick, short reasons why:
-I've had the name since the very, VERY early 00s on various sites, message boards, and online gaming accounts, but I just got tired of using it. Also, from my experience, it's very easy for people to make fun of the name when they see it for the first time. ("Hey, it's Pizza Hut!" "Oh, hey dickbutt!")
| Containing 50% more games you've actually heard of |
In 2020, I decided I was going to stop buying new games and declare war on the backlog. Much like the majority of gamers, I own more games than I can ever play in a lifetime but countless games I want to play get shuffled further and further to the back while the endless stream of new stuff gets stacked on top of them. It was a success! Aside from cashing in steam vouchers over Christmas that I had received as a gift, I purchased exactly zero new games, and the backlog was sufficiently injured. Any current year games I played were at the behest of constant backlog enemy Jason Venter, who even now is plotting ways to trick me into playing more visual novels. THE GOAL: Do the same thing in 2021. Block Venter. Profit.
| So many horror games. So little time. |
The post Halloween update means there’s a lot more activity than other updates because gotta play all the horror games and fill out the month. It’s also been the breaking of an unwritten rule to try and not have more than one main game in progress at once, so I have to actually finish the bloody things so I can move on to the next. I started playing a few horror-y games that I could have rushed through and got a review out to, but it turned out I didn;t need them, mso I pumped the brakes on them. I’ll talk about them anyway
| To the surprise of no one, I play some pretentious video games. |
To the surprise of no one, I play some pretentious video games.
Hellblade is something I’ve been meaning to play for a long, long time now. It’s living up to my expectations thus far; the game is purposefully designed to stress the player out at almost all times. Deconstruct it as a video game, and it’s a corridor of uninteresting puzzles and lacklustre combat burdened by enemies who take too long to kill. But as a complete package, it’s fascinating. The most anti-fun I’ve had with a game since Spec Ops.
| JRPGing like it's 1999 |
In 2020, I decided I was going to stop buying new games and declare war on the backlog. Much like the majority of gamers, I own more games than I can ever play in a lifetime but countless games I want to play get shuffled further and further to the back while the endless stream of new stuff gets stacked on top of them. It was a success! Aside from cashing in steam vouchers over Christmas that I had received as a gift, I purchased exactly zero new games, and the backlog was sufficiently injured. Any current year games I played were at the behest of constant backlog enemy Jason Venter, who even now is plotting ways to trick me into playing more visual novels. THE GOAL: Do the same thing in 2021. Block Venter. Profit.
| Containing 50% more games you've actually heard of |
In 2020, I decided I was going to stop buying new games and declare war on the backlog. Much like the majority of gamers, I own more games than I can ever play in a lifetime but countless games I want to play get shuffled further and further to the back while the endless stream of new stuff gets stacked on top of them. It was a success! Aside from cashing in steam vouchers over Christmas that I had received as a gift, I purchased exactly zero new games, and the backlog was sufficiently injured. Any current year games I played were at the behest of constant backlog enemy, Jason Venter, who even now is plotting ways to trick me into playing more visual novels. THE GOAL: Do the same thing in 2021. Block Venter. Profit.
| Wherein I play a mainstream game! Released in 2010 |
8Doors: Arum's Afterlife Adventure Had a slight hiccup with this one; my save file seemed to get corrupted and I lost about 2-3 hours of progress. It’s one of those Metroidvania things, so the good news is, now I know where I'm going, I managed to catch back up pretty quick. It has you going through purgatory, based on Korean folktales. Also, a frog with a cowboy hat sits on your head and offers bad advice. Very good stuff so far.
| Featuring very little backlog work, and a lot of Ventering |
In 2020, I decided I was going to stop buying new games and declare war on the backlog. Much like the majority of gamers, I own more games than I can ever play in a lifetime but countless games I want to play get shuffled further and further to the back while the endless stream of new stuff gets stacked on top of them. It was a success! Aside from cashing in steam vouchers over Christmas that I had received as a gift, I purchased exactly zero new games, and the backlog was sufficiently injured. Any current year games I played were on the behest of constant backlog enemy, Jason Venter, who even now is plotting ways to trick me into playing more visual novels. THE GOAL: Do the same thing in 2021. Block Venter. Profit.
| Some of these games aren't obscure indies. But most are. |
In 2020, I decided I was going to stop buying new games and declare war on the backlog. Much like the majority of gamers, I own more games than I can ever play in a lifetime but countless games I want to play get shuffled further and further to the back while the endless stream of new stuff gets stacked on top of them. It was a success! Aside from cashing in steam vouchers over Christmas that I had received as a gift, I purchased exactly zero new games, and the backlog was sufficiently injured. Any current year games I played were on the behest of constant backlog enemy, Jason Venter, who even now is plotting ways to trick me into playing more visual novels. THE GOAL: Do the same thing in 2021. Block Venter. Profit.
| A future update may include a game you've actually heard of |
In 2020, I decided I was going to stop buying new games and declare war on the backlog. Much like the majority of gamers, I own more games than I can ever play in a lifetime but countless games I want to play get shuffled further and further to the back while the endless stream of new stuff gets stacked on top of them. It was a success! Aside from cashing in steam vouchers over Christmas that I had received as a gift, I purchased exactly zero new games, and the backlog was sufficiently injured. Any current year games I played were on the behest of constant backlog enemy, Jason Venter, who even now is plotting ways to trick me into playing more visual novels. THE GOAL: Do the same thing in 2021. Block Venter. Profit.
//The Backlog Mortuary//
| Refurbishing old reviews in an effort to put off writing new ones. |
The Idea: Every week or so, to take a review that's unexplainably racked up a lot of rapid fire hits for reasons no one will ever understand and update it. Not rewrite it completely, but tidy away sections that have maybe not aged well, add screenshots where applicable and update the tagline in order to promote that punlife I have chosen. The site's undergone a lot of changes over the years, and the formatting once used has aged. For example! I remember the first time I played around with putting screenshots in the body of my review then tourney and/or RotW judge, Jerec, wondered out loud if it was a form of cheating. It's not my intention to rewrite handfuls of old reviews, just bring them a little up to date. If I can retrofit a pun tagline in there, all the better.
| Forgotten No More |
Some time ago now, I abandoned traditional writing apps like Word and now do most of my work directly into Google Drive, which has most of the same tools, lets me access it from anywhere and hard saves my work because I have an annoying habit of losing it to rebellious PCs and my inability to save stuff correctly. It's worked out pretty well for me, but it does have a darkside; every now and then, I'll find something that I started working on many moons ago that I had abandoned or forgotten. Sometimes, I have zero reason for this. The best example I have is for a review I wrote for a game called Residue. It was made by a little indie dev who made an interesting little horror game previously, so I picked this up more or less on day 1, promptly wrote a review and then forgot it existed f
| Refurbishing old reviews in a effort to put off writing new ones. |
The Idea: Every week or so, to take a review that's unexplainably racked up a lot of rapid fire hits for reasons no one will ever understand and update it. Not rewrite it completely, but tidy away sections that have maybe not aged well, add screenshots where applicable and update the tagline in order to promote that punlife I have chosen. The site's undergone a lot of changes over the years, and the formatting once used has aged. For example! I remember the first time I played around with putting screenshots in the body of my review then tourney and/or RotW judge, Jerec, wondered out loud if it was a form of cheating. It's not my intention to rewrite handfuls of old reviews, just bring them a little up to date. If I can retrofit a pun tagline in there, all the better.
| Forgotten No More |
Some time ago now, I abandoned traditional writing apps like Word and now do most of my work directly into Google Drive, which has most of the same tools, lets me access it from anywhere and hard saves my work because I have an annoying habit of losing it to rebellious PCs and my inability to save stuff correctly. It's worked out pretty well for me, but it does have a darkside; every now and then, I'll find something that I started working on many moons ago that I had abandoned or forgotten. Sometimes, I have zero reason for this. The best example I have is for a review I wrote for a game called Residue. It was made by a little indie dev who made an interesting little horror game previously, so I picked this up more or less on day 1, promptly wrote a review and then forgot it existed f
|
© 1998-2025 HonestGamers
None of the material contained within this site may be reproduced in any conceivable fashion without permission from the author(s) of said material. This site is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, or any other such party. Opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily represent the opinion of site staff or sponsors. |