Here, you'll find up to 20 of the most recent posts from the people I follow. Only public results gleaned from the last 200 overall posts to HG Blogs will be displayed. If you see no results below, that means I'm not following a lot of people, or the people I'm following haven't been active in a long while, or they simply aren't sharing their posts.
 | Yay me |
Outlast
First-person horror fare set in an asylum, except the protagonist actually has a solid reason to be there. So many cheaper games have you entering abandoned asylums just for the hell of it, which no one in their right mind would do. Then there's the movie SXTape... Anyway, what I like most about this one is the paranoia it builds. You never know if an approaching patient is going to attack you or just blather on about some random thing while leaving you alone. Hell, some of them even dispense a bit of backstory, so they can even prove beneficial.
Elliot Quest
 | The $80 price tag for premium games on the shiny new hardware does not have folks feeling delighted. |
Nintendo today revealed a lot of the most pertinent details about its upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 console and a few launch games. One thing it didn’t touch on was the price for the hardware and its first games, which launch on June 5. However, respected game influencer Geoff Keighley quickly tweeted on X to let fans know they should expect to pay $449 for the hardware itself, and $80 for digital games. That sounds like a lot, especially for the games, but shouldn’t we have seen this coming?
| Some good, some not so much... |
Yes, I'm still chewing through that list of games I dropped a while back, plus some other stuff I've been checking out:
-Tembo the Badass Elephant
Just finished this one and typed up a rough draft for a review. It's good. Not amazing, but good...
-Ephemeral Fantasia
Groundhog Day meets Guitar Hero in JRPG form. So far, I'm not terribly impressed. I haven't gotten to the combat yet, but the guitar mini-game is confusing and overly complicated, exacerbated by a lousy tutorial. Meh.
-Overlord
| We'll see... |
What am I currently playing:
Iesabel
A not-Diablo game that is most certainly not Diablo. It's weird because this one scratches that particular itch, but does so in an irksome, ham-fisted manner. For instance, you have to occasionally go to great lengths to reposition yourself just to destroy a barrel. Targeting is wonky, walking is a slow process, and even the story is kinda weird. You start out as one of four chosen warriors foreseen by a shaman, but your carriage is destroyed en route and your partners are murdered. The shaman who foresaw your coming apparently didn't foresee this event and now believes you murdered your friends to swipe equipment off their corpses. Not exactly a Danny Torrence, this one...
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
 | 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
 | Happy New Ys! |
I didn't write up any summaries for the games I played or finished in 2023. I probably didn't finish many, truth be told. I remember a 120 hour block of Trails into Reverie dominating the middle of the year. This year, I felt like I was back on track - the trade off that I watch a lot less TV and use that time to play games instead.
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus (Switch)
| Out with the old and in with the old |
Burn in Hell, 2024. This was not my best year by a long shot, but even with divorce, financial woes, and depression, it still beats 2011 and 2016. However, those things pretty much dealt a blow to my free time and prevented me from getting as much gaming done as I wanted to. Lately, I've been making myself take it easy now and then, playing games and reading books as a means to better my mental health. It's been working, but we'll see how much I get done in 2025, assuming I get a much-needed, part-time, second job.
The Jury's Out:
Dimensity (PC)
| At least one of these should be unsurprising |
I have three reviews coming up!
Dig Dug II: Trouble in Paradise (NES) - We stopped digging and started cutting fault lines on islands. Oh, and there's a weird continue option!
Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster (PC) - There appears to be a pattern here. Oh, and I've started FFVPR as well? Of course, as I've already played and reviewed IV. I couldn't wait.
Anodyne (PC) - Zelda with an extra helping of existential dread, and no, I don't mean Link's Awakening.
Others to follow, plus I still...STILL... plan to get around to finishing AlphaMurderthon. Divorce kinda put some breaks on that, but I feel like I'm back on track.
| 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
| You pick my next project! |
I have a butt ton of games in my Steam library. I remember purchasing most of them, but to be honest, I shotgun purchases and buy bundles so often that I don't recall getting my hands on a lot of them. It's time for you to determine: which one should I play and review next out of these eight choices?
Fortress of Hell - 2D RPG that looks like ass, but has a totally metal title.
Lost Sea - A cel-shaded action adventure game with perma-death. I don't know about this one...
Overhell - Delisted. I'm not sure what it's supposed to be or how it got there. Let's go?
PulseCharge - 2D platformer with trippy/nauseating colors. If I don't barf a rainbow, it wasn't trying hard enough.
| Yes, I'm still here |
Alright, things are getting figured out. I've gotten a lot done, but it cost me a bit of sanity and free time. However, I've gotten back into the swing by playing through Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster, which I will be reviewing soon.
Mwahahahahahahahah! [It's actually better than most versions of the game, which isn't saying much. It always was my least favorite main Final Fantasy entry. Oh well, it's still not as mouth-frothing as All the Bravest.]
 | No self-control, as ever. |
So, even though I'm playing a few other games and even really enjoying at least one of them, I kind of figured that it wouldn't take long for me to snap up and start Shadow of the Erdtree when it came out, considering how Elden Ring was the sort of experience I've always dreamed about experiencing in gaming.
And so, it began yesterday and today was the day where I just sort of ignored those other games I'm playing -- even Assassin's Creed IV, which I love and am in like the 11th of 13 or so chapters -- and devoted 5-6 hours to Shadows.
| Some people feel differently about Zelda than I do. They are wrong and I am right. |
I have no way of knowing what the person next to me is thinking, and I can’t possibly hope to know every thought and preference of a stranger I meet online. Even my own tastes and preferences change over time. With that said, I’m pretty sure I’ve never met someone who played and really liked the original Zelda games but thinks that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom “isn’t a real Zelda game.”
Please don’t roll your eyes!
| Please insert Life disc 2 |
I've taken some time away from this place, and now I feel the need to speak on it a little. Mostly, I need and outlet and maybe an attentive eye.
My wife and I weren't doing so good for the last several years. My dad and many close friends passed away between 2015 and 2021, tensions flared pretty much across the country in 2016, the pandemic hit in 2020, and I wasn't emotionally prepared for a lot of it. Losing my dad was made all the heavier by my refusal to engage my emotions because I needed to be emotionally stable for my mother, wife, and children. Not even a year later, a lost another friend to cancer, then my aunt, my cat, and several other good friends during the pandemic.
 | Robocop, Sonic, Palworld, Tomb Raider |
RoboCop: Rogue City
I'm a massive fan of this license. Peter Weller being back to voice Murphy is great, and so is the usage of the score during shootouts and dramatic moments. I played through immediately on release, and since then there has been an update adding a New Game Plus mode. Definitely looking forward to going back as a more invincible version of RoboCop.
Sonic Superstars
Not bad at all! A very fun game for 2D Sonic fans. I would have preferred sprite graphics, but the level design is fun. So is the boss design, though it seems most commenters strongly disagree with me. I was at a game convention where Sega had a booth for this one and got a free Sonic Superstars file holder! Sick.
Palworld
| 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
| Taking a short break |
Just letting everyone know I've got a lot going on in my life right now, so you're probably not going to see me super often over the next few weeks while I figure myself out.
But I shall return.🫡
| More Mega Man, another horror adventure, and a tour of some tropical islands (Not StarTropics, sadly...). |
Mega Man X4 (PlayStation)
Finished and reviewed. I restarted the game recently to see if I could finish it with Zero, and my mission was a success. This one is the best since X2. Sadly, the next two games are downhill. I'm not sure about the last two, but I haven't heard much good about them (although X8 does have a positive review on this site, so there's hope).
Mega Man X5 (PlayStation)
Finished and reviewed. Meh. Too many eggs in one basket, and level designs range from good to crap. It woud've been a better game if it weren't all over the place...
Mega Man X6 (PlayStation)
| A look back at this years time sinks... |
I've decided to start doing something different with my GIPTYTKA topics: introducing a “best in show” award (yeah, as if this is a dog show for video games) and an “epic” award that's not exactly a “second place,” but highlights a game that I found great that should still receive attention. Going back over the previous years' topics, here's what I've selected:
BIS 2022: Bayonetta 2
Epic 2022: Rise of the Third Power
BIS 2021: Mad Father Remake
Epic 2021: Wild Arms 3
BIS 2020: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Epic 2020: Ara Fell
BIS 2019: Unforgiving: A Northern Hymn
Epic 2019: Phantasy Star IV
This year's Epic and Best in Show will be presented after the list.
| 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
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