I didn’t get stuck in a single game the last half of the year and while I managed to work my way through a bit of my backlog, I ended up picking up/being gifted more games than I could play. Go figure…

• Tyranny (DNF) – wasn’t in the mood for a lot of decision making, but seemed promising if I were in the mental space for it
• Wytchwood – satisfies the crafting itch but can get repetitive trying to farm up the mats for the necessary quest items; interesting graphics/art direction, sort of interesting story twist
• A Short Hike – basic 3D graphics but manages to still be cute, gliding mechanism makes it fun to “fly” around the island while satisfying quest goals to reach the top of the mountain (a tongue-in-cheek way to go touch grass)
• Garden Story – the hero trope where you are a grape and are originally tasked with tending the nursery but the world needs more healing otherwise there would be more sprouts, so you’re taken out of your comfort area and thrown into the world; graphics are cute and gameplay is not too bad (sort of clumsy at times)
• Assemble with Care – more of a visual novel storytelling with easy puzzles to advance the story; help repair various pieces of equipment while learning more about the narrator and the small community she is staying in while finding herself; a good chill game
• Lemon Cake (DNF) – one of the games that came in a Humble Bundle; the responses of doing actions is laggy and makes the gameplay more difficult than it should be, but does end up being very repetitive in terms of cooking and expanding the bakery
• The Outer Worlds – I finished by focusing primarily on the main quest line (I seem to not be committed to 3D RPGs this period) but got tired of the story rather quickly; seemed like you could establish a relationship with party members like in BioWare games, but I had no patience in exploring beyond Parvati (an ace character)
• Star Wars Jedi Knight (DNF) – could not adjust to being unable to inverse the vertical camera movement
• Turnip Boy – cutesy graphics, a short game, not bad
• Guild of Ascension (DNF) – interesting mechanic with the tactical board for combat, more arena-based than exploration-based, but the difficulty takes a quick climb and decided it wasn’t worth my time
• Journey to a Savage Planet – I had more fun playing this game than I expected, tongue-in-cheek narrator humor, select cartoony sfx adds to the levity; would like to try this as multiplayer to see if its as fun or more
• High on Life (DNF) – ultimately lost interest (shooters are not something I play often) even though the talking gun concept was different and some lines were humorous
• Dredge – gameplay is simplistic with Tetris-like inventory and the main goal is to fish and sell your catch to upgrade your boat so that you can fetch artifacts; there is an insanity level at night which ties into the larger story and there are multiple possible endings; while pokemon-like in terms of the fish and getting the gold/shiny catch, only worth it if you like the fishing mini game and having to deal with the day/night mechanics
• Evan’s Remains – a platform puzzle game with a story narrative, pleasant graphics and easy puzzle gameplay, eventually revealing the story behind the main character and the handful of others you meet on the way
• Core Keeper – an early access game so I got as far as defeating the 3 titans but sank 60+ hours into it in a month and a half; takes a little to get into but once the momentum gets going, then its easy to get sucked in
• Terraria (DNF) – mainly to play with other people but also hadn’t played before and wanted to better understand it; basically got steamworld vibes (digging/mining downwards) but also able to build/craft a base
• Far Lone Sails – a short game where you are invited to mess around and find out just what you can do as you keep the land sail moving, occasionally stopping to handle obstacles and upgrading it along the way; finished this twice to get an achievement, might finish it a third time to get an over 9000 km traveled achievement
• A Tiny Sticker Tale – a short game with an interesting “magic” system where certain things can be turned into stickers (including npcs) to move them around and solve puzzles; the storyline is more for kids than adults but serves as a decent reminder on how to be a decent human being
• Nairi: Tower of Shirin – a short-ish game with puzzles that are not always straightforward (or I’m just impatient) but with a lot of narrative and story; Nairi is woken up rather abruptly from a study nap and ushered to run across the street to get smuggled out of the city because her parents have been arrested, then she is kidnapped by bandits but settles in with her captors until she resolves to find her parents again, learns about the politics of the gangs in the poor area of the city, and goes on an adventure where she and her rat companion Rex learn about her necklace and role as a Messenger; the story ends somewhat abruptly but there is a sequel coming out next year