Games Beaten - January 2023

Thought I would do the honors and create the first Games Beaten thread of the year.

Finished one game and one mod, but by far the game was the best part of the month.

Cultic (PC, 01/02, 9/10)
Amalgam (PC, 01/26, 7/10)

And this month's award for the best game I played goes to Cultic! I was very hesitant about trying this since I've complained a lot about the quantity over quality state of the Boomer Shooter market, but Cultic delighted me and surprised me. Despite a couple of rough things at the beginning, the game won me over and I ended up loving it. It makes yet another FPS Game an epic sort of adventure with adventurous level design, great variety of weapons, fun gunplay, nice looking graphics (if you turn off all the ugly filters in the menu), bopping soundtrack, everything about this is great. I loved playing this and I'm impatiently waiting for Episode Two to be released as this is just the first episode, although what's great is that it feels complete. Highly recommend this one.

The other thing I played was Amalgam, a bare bones by the books Half-Life 2 mod that's unoriginal and does nothing new. It's not a bad mod, the voice acting is surprisingly good (G-Man sounds fantastic I literally thought they got the actual voice actor for him), the level design makes for some enjoyable battles and the dark ambient soundtrack fits well with Half-Life in general. It's completely adequate, but there are so many better mods to play, from Entropy: Zero 2 (which I need to finish) Half-Life: Echoes and Mission: Improbable. Play this if you've gone through everything else.

Next month, I'll still be continuing Biomutant which I now have 21 Hours in. I also will be hopefully finally playing AMID EVIL to completion since I can finally play without freezes or stutters since I have a very high end CPU now that doesn't make that happen. Also, I'll probably start Kirby's Return to Dreamland Deluxe on Switch which I pre-ordered and will also try out a new Half-Life 2 mod called Evacuation which looks really exciting. Finally, I'm going to finish Dread Templar next month which I'm nearly done, I'm on the 4th Episode out of 5 now so I'll hopefully finish it if it doesn't get too ridiculously hard and unbalanced, which thankfully it hasn't so far despite some really tough fights.

Well, I finished Monster Boy and The Cursed Kingdom some minutes ago actually! It was a fun "metroidvania", though the game felt way too linear for its explorations.

Difficult curve is also slightly busted as the game dramatically increases difficulty when you reach the Volcano - which actually made the game way more fun too me as it was too easy for the first couple of hours.

All in all, its a great game but it might not be what you are expecting. If you're are going with a Action Platformer kind of vibe instead of "Let's explore as it's a metroidvania", you will be very much satisfied.

I have actually finished a decent number of games this month. The fact that I spent the first week of January on vacation and that I haven't played anything overly long probably helped.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II - It's pretty good. Not quite as good as the first one, the story is rather low stakes and just kinda whatever, but the gameplay is excellent. The multiplayer is there too, I guess.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - A pretty nice finish for the series. What worked before works here as well.

Mass Effect (Legendary Edition) - The gameplay didn't age well, but the world and story still hold up really well. It's still worth playing.

Yamizome Revenger - A game and visual novel hybrid. The gameplay is okay and so are the characters and story. Nothing amazing but it's fairly short so it doesn't overstay its welcome. This is also an h-game, so there is a lot of sex, and... it's pretty rapey. Now, I'm not exactly unused to this sort of stuff, but the way this particular title handled it made me rather uncomfortable. It seemed like the story wanted to have its cake and eat it too when it came to its questionable content. Could have done without that stuff honestly.

Mass Effect 2 (Legendary Edition) - The sequel that improves a lot of stuff, especially the gameplay. Amazing story, characters, and world, unrivaled final mission.

This month I worked on a bunch of short games I had in my Steam library. It's going to be interesting to see the Steam Replay metrics for this year if I keep at this pace. I plan to knock out a bunch of games on my PS5 and Switch this year as well.

1/1 Drizzlepath - PC
1/5 A Building Full of Cats - PC
1/7 A Bird Story - PC
1/7 Placid Plastic Duck Simulator - PC
1/7 Resonance of the Ocean - PC
1/8 Sudocats - PC
1/8 Kenshō - PC
1/9 Zodiacats - PC
1/10 Koral - PC
1/16 Travel Mosaics 10: Spooky Halloween - PC
1/22 A Castle Full of Cats - PC

I have finished 4 games this year :
Fahrenheit prophecy indigo
Va-11 hall-a
Bayonetta 2
Dead space (original)

I’ve enjoyed every single one but Bayonetta was my most enjoyed so far as it had improved on Bayonetta 1 in every way possible. I’ve got a 1 week holiday coming up so I’m hoping to smash out some more titles!

Dread Templar (2023)
White Shadows (2021)

6 this month.

4/1 - Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap

This was the first game I played on my Steam Deck, not exactly something that puts its power to the test. I had never gotten round to Minish Cap before, and I had quite a bit of fun with it.

9/1 - Sonic: Before the Sequel

Glargh. I tend to enjoy most Sonic games but there was something about this fan game that didn't do it for me. I finished it, but I can't see myself ever replaying it again.

20/1 - Mario and Rabbids: Sparks of Hope

I really enjoyed this one - it's a great improvement on the original, the freedom of movement added another tactical layer to battle (as did the Sparks) and it was a lot of fun. I especially loved putting Luigi in front during the open world sections as when you sprint with him he says 'Zoom Zoom' in a way that always made me smile.

22/1 - Cat Quest 2

Also fun, it was a good couch coop game that I played through with my wife. Not particularly taxing or trying.

23/1 - Thunder Force IV

I enjoy SHUMPs from time to time, and this was an awesome one. I'd like to revisit it and see if I can do it without save states one day.

25/1 Sonic: After the Sequel

An improvement on Before the Sequel, but generally I wasn't a big fan of either.

Thumper (PlayStation VR) - January 16, 2023 - Campaign score: 1,941,650.

Dead Space 2 (Xbox 360) - January 30, 2023 - 8h 8m 52s - The time is from the Save File after beating the game, so it may not be entirely accurate. - "Round 2". Zealot difficulty. Isaac fully upgraded. - REPLAY

Thumper is absolutely brilliant, especially in VR. Already working on S Ranks. Highly recommend it to people who like rhythm games.
Also did a replay of Dead Space 2, before the remake of the first game, which I'm now playing. Highly recommend both of them as well.

Happy gaming for February!

King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder. That was it for me this month.

Games I finished in January 2023:

1. Sayonara Wild Hearts - PC - Jan 30, 2023
2. The Dark Pictures: The Devil in Me - PS5 - Jan 29, 2023
3. Virginia - PS4 - Jan 26, 2023 - 40%
4. The Callisto Protocol - PS5 - Jan 25, 2023
5. Red Dead Redemption 2 - PS5 - Jan 14, 2023

Current main playthrough into February 2023 : Uncharted 4

Games:
1/03 Halo 2: Anniversary
1/04 Bayonetta 2
1/08 Layers of Fear
1/08 Splatoon 3
1/13 Postal 2
1/15 Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor
1/17 Hotline Miami
1/19 Final Doom
DLC:
1/02 Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods - Part 2
1/09 Layers of Fear: Inheritance
1/13 Postal 2: Apocalypse Weekend
1/30 Postal 2: Paradise Lost

January was a pretty open month for me overall, so that meant I had quite a bit of time to game before my school semester started and started to ramp up. My favorite games this month were Bayonetta 2 and Postal 2. Bayonetta 2 is a fantastic sequel to Bayonetta, though a bit short. Though Bayonetta 2 is the better game overall, I had the most fun with Postal 2. This game is pure insanity and I absolutely love it. My least favorite game I have completed this month was probably the Final Doom, mainly due to it just being 2 large doom map packs with little to no new things to stand out among the rest of the doom franchise. Though is still quite enjoyed the Final Doom, I do have to mention Postal 2: Apocalypse Weekend since it was the absolute worst gaming thing I played this month. This set of extra levels kind of sucks, since it just ends up being combat section after combat section while lacking what made Postal 2's open gameplay so special.

On January __, I beat ___.

13 - Rise of the Tomb Raider
19 - Slay the Spire
28 - Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider reboot trilogy complete! Not essential. Love those escape sequences, but hate survival instincts and the objects littered all over the place to pick up. I feel like I wore the right stick out from clicking it for 40 hours over the course of these two games.

Slay the Spire is phenomenal. This is my second deck-builder roguelike, even though it seems to be the one that ignited the genre in the past couple years. I spent forever trying to beat Act 4 with The Watcher and never managed it. I've convinced several friends to buy this! I'm on to Monster Train now.

A couple of things.

Jan 02 - Breadsticks - PC
Jan 04 - Dark Souls III - PC - REPLAY
Jan 17 - Gujian3 - PC
Jan 22 - Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! - PC
Jan 22 - Menage a Trois - PC
Jan 22 - Meaning - PC
Jan 26 - Raft - PC
Jan 27 - Dawn of Man - PC

I beat 7 games on PC this month.

Epistory: Typing Chronicles (3/01)
Distraint (05/01) - Steam Deck
Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist (05/01)
Distraint 2 (07/03) - Steam Deck
AI: The Somnium Files (14/03) - Steam Deck
A Memoir Blue (16/01) - PC Gamepass
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (21/01) - Steam deck
Runaway: A Road Adventure (25/01)
Telling Lies (27/01) - PC Gamepass
PAW Patrol: Mighty Pups Save Adventure Bay (31/01) - PC Gamepass

One little completion by me this month! My girlfriend has challenged me to get more completions this year than ever before (which is 34), and I'm not off to a great start lol. I'll be trying to add in some shorter games every month in between the big ones in an attempt to do that. But without further ado:

1/26 - Power Ranger Wild Force (GBA) - 54m 57s - Replay

I bought a Retron 5 this month and used this game to try it out. Haven't played since I was a young kid (it was one of my earliest completions) but I knew it was short. I plan to talk more about it in the near future once I get my blog going (finally going to make one of my own).

New year new completions:

Completed: 3
Back to the future: The game - Episode 1: It's about time
Back to the future: The game - Episode 2: Get Tannen
Back to the future: The game - Episode 3: Citizen Brown

so far I got
1/7/23 "Prognostic" very good game if you have not played it yet give it a try
1/11/23 "EDENGATE: The Edge of Life" it is a interesting game tho
1/20/23 "Eternal Evil" it is a cool game nothing that special about it , it is well made
1/25/23 "From the Darkness" I can say that this game is good horror one

right now i am playing "Ghost of a Tale" and "Eternal Threads" and "SpellForce 3 Reforced"

Ahh, January hath come and gone. Already.

01/06 Pokémon Violet (NS) • 42:35 ⭐⭐⭐
01/10 Super Mario Bros. 2 (NS) • 3:02 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
01/31 Live a Live (NS) • 22:46 ⭐⭐⭐

It's hard to choose a favorite game this month. I had a very good time with Pokémon Violet, but it was hideous and buggy and ran like garbage. Live a Live was gorgeous and had an excellent soundtrack, but the gameplay was all over the place. Some of its scenarios were excellent... but some of them were just dreadful. And then it settled into hardcore JRPG at the end, which would have been fine if that didn't come with frequent random battles. 😭 So... Super Mario Bros. 2, then? That was a good time, and I got to play at a severe disadvantage because my cat sat in front of the TV the entire time to swat at Birdo's eggs.

Been fairly busy lately with a new job so I mostly replayed some old favourites to help me destress, as well as a couple rando fighting games on weekends.

Donkey Kong Country: Enjoyable if somewhat basic Mario-style sidescroller carried by its pseudo-3D visuals and high quality soundtrack. The most interesting aspect of the stages is probably uncovering the bonus rounds, but the game does not give any meaningful reward for doing this. 7/10
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest: A much more fleshed out take on the original Donkey Kong Country, featuring more distinct playable characters, improved controls, more creative art and level design, more hidden secrets, massively improved boss design, and an actual reason to seek out the bonus rounds, as they now unlock levels in the game's final world. 9/10
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble: Generally more of the same as its predecessor, but this allows the developers to go even further with creative level arrangements and unique enemy mechanics. No two levels in DKC3 are alike, and the stages generally wring every drop of vigour they can from the mechanic of the day. The bonus rounds in and of themselves are probably the most interesting here, as they're more willing to integrate the level's unique mechanics. The overworld is much more explorative than in previous games, but unfortunately the only real secrets it has to offer are simple Simon Says style memory challenges rather than more involved content like you see in Super Mario World. Graphically this is probably the single best looking game on the SNES, though the character designs are pretty weak overall. 8.5/10
Pizza Tower: Extremely frenetic and madcap platformer with a mild action/puzzle bent. While heavily inspired by Wario Land 4, the game's score attack focus and more freeform movement lends it a strong identity of its own, and while there aren't very many levels, each one is filled with creative and genuinely inspired mechanics, and the boss fights are a cut above average by platformer standards as well. 9/10
Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk: Short and kind of annoying, though I guess some of the prose is neat and the twist could have been worse. 5/10

Quite a quiet moth to start the year.

- The Walking Dead: 400 Days - PC - 8/01 - 1:30 h
- Day of the Tentacle: Remastered - PC - 14/01 - 5:01 h
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - PC [Replay] - 15/01 - 4:25 h

I had a lot of work finishing my studies' project, so I couldn't finish any longer game. I'm playing slowly God of War: Ragnarok and Golden Sun, but I finish playing more short sessions of FM23 to relax.

Walking Dead was OK, but the other games are two of my first gaming experiences when I was really young. I played both of them with my sisters, but I hadn't completed Day of the Tentacle. Harry Potter is really simple and relaxing. Day of the Tentacle is a GREAT graphic adventure.

The Walking Dead and Harry Potter were uploaded to my YouTube channel in Spanish (JotaFran).

My only completion this month was Serial Experiments Lain on browser (originally released on PS1 in Japan). It's an companion piece for the anime of the same name.

The "game" is more of an audio-visual drama than a video game in any traditional sense. It consists mostly of listening audio diaries and psychiatric counseling sessions with occasional animated cutscenes. The story follows the titular character Lain, a 12 year-old girl who potentially suffers from some sort of mental health issues, and her counselor/therapist Touko.

The player listens through their counseling sessions and personal diaries. I think the game does excellent job at portraying mental health issues realistically without resorting into oversimplifying them like most media. The story isn't afraid to explore even the darker aspects of the topic and can get quite heartbreaking and sad, also very surreal towards the end when the reality seems to get distorted not only for Lain but also her therapist. Definitely up there with the likes of Silent Hill 2 and The Cat Lady.

Highly recommended for the fans of the anime and for people not afraid to try something different. My playthrough lasted about 8½ hours. The game can be played on browser with an English translation here: https://laingame.net/

I complete a mere small 19 games in January of 2023. No clue how but i did and they where the following
1. Need for Speed Most Wanted (2012) - 65/100 - Finished 2nd of January
2. Severed Steel (2021) - 50/100 - Finished 2nd of January
3. Dishonored (2012) - 80/100 - Finished 4th of January
4. Call of Duty Black Ops III (2015) 40/100 - Finished 5th of January
5. Wolfenstein the New Order (2014) - 65/100 - Finished 9th of January
6. Borderlands 3 (2019) - 60/100 - Finished 14th of January
7. Quest for Bush: Night of Bush Capturing (2006) - 0/100 - Finished 14th of January
8. Dishonored 1 DLC "The Knife of Dunwall" (2013) - 70/100 - Finished 15th of January
9 .Street Racer Europe (2009) - 40/100 - Finished 16th of January - Played in Polish since there was no English language options
10. Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches (2013) - 70/100 - Finished 17th of January
11. Alcatraz: In Harms Way (2010) - 35/100 - Finished January 18th - Played in Polish since there was no English language options
12. Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018) - 80/100 - Finished 20th of January
13. Quest for Al-Qa'eda: The Hunt for Bin Laden (2002) - Finished 20th of January - 50/100.
14. Quest for Hussein (2002) - Finished 20th of January - 50/100
15. Quest for Saddam (2003) - Finished 21st of January - 45/100
16. Control (2019) - 45/100 - Finished 24th of January 2023
17. Bloom: Roots of Renewal (2022) - 60/100 - Finished 28th of January
18. Breathedge (2021) - 60/100 - Finished 31st of January - Played with Russian Voice acting and English subtitles
19. Bloom Tome of Power (2020) - 55/100 - Finished 31st of January
Now i could go into detail about each game but man oh man i dont want to send a wall of text from each review so i advise checking my blog for more in detailed review/thoughts of each game.

I complete a mere small 19 games in January of 2023. No clue how but i did and they where the following
1. Need for Speed Most Wanted (2012) - 65/100 - Finished 2nd of January
2. Severed Steel (2021) - 50/100 - Finished 2nd of January
3. Dishonored (2012) - 80/100 - Finished 4th of January
4. Call of Duty Black Ops III (2015) 40/100 - Finished 5th of January
5. Wolfenstein the New Order (2014) - 65/100 - Finished 9th of January
6. Borderlands 3 (2019) - 60/100 - Finished 14th of January
7. Quest for Bush: Night of Bush Capturing (2006) - 0/100 - Finished 14th of January
8. Dishonored 1 DLC "The Knife of Dunwall" (2013) - 70/100 - Finished 15th of January
9 .Street Racer Europe (2009) - 40/100 - Finished 16th of January - Played in Polish since there was no English language options
10. Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches (2013) - 70/100 - Finished 17th of January
11. Alcatraz: In Harms Way (2010) - 35/100 - Finished January 18th - Played in Polish since there was no English language options
12. Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018) - 80/100 - Finished 20th of January
13. Quest for Al-Qa'eda: The Hunt for Bin Laden (2002) - Finished 20th of January - 50/100.
14. Quest for Hussein (2002) - Finished 20th of January - 50/100
15. Quest for Saddam (2003) - Finished 21st of January - 45/100
16. Control (2019) - 45/100 - Finished 24th of January 2023
17. Bloom: Roots of Renewal (2022) - 60/100 - Finished 28th of January
18. Breathedge (2021) - 60/100 - Finished 31st of January - Played with Russian Voice acting and English subtitles
19. Bloom Tome of Power (2020) - 55/100 - Finished 31st of January
Now i could go into detail about each game but man oh man i dont want to send a wall of text from each review so i advise checking my blog for more in detailed review/thoughts of each game.

Games:
1/1 All-Star Fighters - PlayStation 2
1/3 Mortal Kombat X - PC
1/4 Ranma 1/2: Hard Battle - SNES
1/4 There Is No Game: Jam Edition 2015 - Mobile
1/5 L.A. Noire - PC
1/5 Lala the Magical - NES
1/6 Ubermosh - PC
1/11 Monument Valley - Mobile
1/13 Track & Field II - NES
1/13 Yu-Gi-Oh! Destiny Board Traveler - GBA
1/16 NextDoor - Browser
1/19 Disney's Aladdin - SNES
1/19 BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle - PC
1/24 Doom (2016) - PC
1/26 Metal Slug 5 - PlayStation 2
1/26 Endless Zone - PC

I've completed 16 games for the month of January; most of them are short indie titles or retro games. And games likes Doom (2016), L.A. Noire, MKX, BB:CTB. I've started them a long time ago, that's why it took less time in completing them. I tend to play games halfway through or sometimes almost reaching the end of the story, then just put it on hold for some reason. I easily get distracted by new releases or other games that I just got an urge to play. I had a lot of free time during January, but I can't say for sure for the upcoming months.

01/5/23- Paper Mario The Origami King 7/10
01/8/23- Sonic Colors Ultimate 6/10
01/9/23- Sonic Forces 6/10
01/9/23- Cars 2 7/10
01/17/23- Prototype 4/10
01/25/23- Agents of Mayhem 8/10