Hi,
Welcome to the first update of the year - hope you’re having a fantastic start to 2025!
I am doing Alright, hanging in there as always! TBH I've been mentally preoccupied w/ my day job (my boss, coworkers etc are cool, but frankly we’re understaffed & overworked 💦). On the channel we've been trucking through BG3 and DAV with shorter games and first looks sprinkled in between. I'd love to ramp things up a bit more but I need to get through this busy patch first (fingers crossed it's not a new constant lol).
TL;DR
Finished: Thank Goodness You’re Here!, Platform 8
Ongoing: Baldur’s Gate 3, Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Next Up: wrapping up Veilguard, Lost Records
Finished Stuff
Thank Goodness You’re Here!: A hilarious 3-hour “point and click” (walk around and slap people) adventure of a travelling salesman in an Northern English town and experiencing all sorts of oddities and errands. I am told it’s an accurate depiction of what these Northern English towns are like (!?) It definitely felt culturally distinct and a lot of it flew over my head 🤣 Still a great time, and a wonderful cozy game to end off 2024 with.
Platform 8: A short hour-long sequel to The Exit 8, a spot-the-difference horror-ish game I played last year. The anomalies are visually more creative than in Exit 8 but the gameplay is more walking gallery-like than ever. Fun enough for a sitting, but overall I thought it was a step down.
We checked out as first looks:
MiSide demo: A weeb horror game about being stuck in a gacha (?) game with a yandere (?) anime girl. The demo was entertaining enough, but unlike things like DDLC or Slay the Princess, I thought the writing seemed middling, probably not helped by the shaky translations for both the English text and Japanese audio. My main thing is so far is there’s been zero attempt to endear me to Anime Girl even though there is an expectation that you just like her by default.
The Roottrees are Dead: A detective puzzle game very much a mix of Return of the Obra Dinn (identifying people via logical deduction) and Her Story (finding clues using keyword searches). Very addicting! I am interested to continue it as a series but I’m keenly aware these types of games can get very high effort and mentally taxing, and I don’t know if I’m up for that right now.... do let me know if you feel strongly about this one though!
Cyber Manhunt 2: New World: Another detective game, but more along the lines of Facebook stalking, hacking and cyber-crime solving (similar to Orwell: Keeping An Eye On You which I’ve played on the channel a few years back). The characters are written super exaggeratedly and caricature-y though. Still fun if you enjoy the genre, but from the beginning bit, I think Orwell did it better.
Current Stuff
Baldur’s Gate 3: We’re… still in Act 3! I have no idea how much is left, but I would guess we’re at least 35% through Act 3? (Atm in the playthrough: I spent like two hours at the graveyard which is just one of 8237489324 spots in town - it is seriously crazy how dense the city is.)
Dragon Age: The Veilguard: I’m squarely in Act 2 now. I’ve been learning to meet Veilgaurd halfway and mechanically it’s a nice “click some buttons and enjoy pretty explosions” sort of game, but I also feel that’s not the kind of space a traditionally narrative-rich series should mainly be occupying. Even after eliminating the weird bad-faith stuff surrounding this game It’s still a tough one to talk about for sure.
Upcoming Stuff
I think the end to Veilguard is in sight and we’ll wrap it up next month. Before Lost Records Tape 1 (Feb 18) would be ideal for me but we’ll see how it works out! With that freed up slot I’ll probably shift focus to more indie stuff – while still being entrenched in Baldur’s Gate 3 – so hopefully there’s going to be something for everyone.
Thank you for your support and endless patience with me! Hoping 2025 will be a good year of video games for everyone 🍸
Welonz