I guess it’s relatively little work to get a “new” release out, create some buzz and get new sales. Not a bad idea by any stretch, the game is great and probably hasn’t sold very well, so the more people play it the better.

Alwa's Awakening

A fantastic game, start to finish. It starts off easy enough, gets really tough later on. Graphics and music are spot on. Don't get put off by the silly intro (looks good enough, the description is nonsensical), it goes from strength to strength afterwards.

Quite lengthy, too. I needed over 26 hours to 100% it, with 750+ deaths (the game helpfully keeps count for you).

Highly recommended.

8/10

I have recently finished Iconoclasts.

I had such high hopes for this game. I was in a mood for a quality platformer, heard so many great things about it, read excellent reviews - but ended up disappointed.

I have the utmost respect for the developer. It's a fantastic solo effort. The visuals and the character animations are great. But I have issues with some of the most praised aspects of the game, which surprised me.

I didn't enjoy combat. It's all about the boss battles, which are frantic affairs where it's hard to figure out what to do, even when the opponent's intentions are telegraphed. There's simply way too much stuff happening on the screen.

Fighting ordinary enemies is supposed to prepare us for boss fights, but it does a poor job at that. The basic movement and fighting mechanics are not properly introduced nor explained. That causes a lot of difficulties and head-scratching later on.

The puzzles are a mixed bag as well. Some are satisfying, but some don't rely on you being clever - they expect you to come back after 10 hours when you unlock the necessary skill. I guess that's normal for a metroidvania, but I didn't get that memo.

In the end, I don't think the story is really interesting or well told. I found the writing rather poor, and the characters are all unlikeable (and some of them utterly annoying). That was probably the most disappointing thing.

Just redid Wolfenstein Old Blood + New Order and Wolfenstein 2.
All back to back.
Just had an urge to kill Nazi's!
My opinion the New Order is defo my favourite.

Just finished Factorio. First I played it since it's release. It was really fun. After you "win", you can keep going and keep building your base. It was fun, although before I stopped I realized it felt like it was becoming more of a chore to keep everything running instead of being creative and building.

Would absolutely recommend.

Also played Remnants of the Precursors this weekend. It's Master of Orion 1, but updated. It plays great and looks great too.

Would also recommend.

Completed Doki Doki Literature Club last week (including the 'deleted file' ending). Now that is one messed-up game :-)
Currently getting back into Dead Cells with the new DLC. Highly recommended if you like platformers with tight controls and lots of action!

Last edited by robvv on 13 January 2022 at 9:56 am UTC

Finally completed peaceful campaign in Caesar 3 thanks to Augustus and roadblocks, after 23 years of on and off playing! Going through the military campaign right now. Augustus is exactly what this game needed and I would definitely donate to them if they had and option on their page. Unfortunately I did not see any donation link to do so.

Last edited by levellord on 13 January 2022 at 1:57 pm UTC

Quoting: robvvCurrently getting back into Dead Cells with the new DLC. Highly recommended if you like platformers with tight controls and lots of action!

I'm trying out Dead Cells. After 3-4 hours, I'm enjoying it much more than Iconoclasts.

Ended Little Nightmare II, Jupiter Hell, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, Underhero and Lenna's Inception.

The only game I'm currently playing with any consistency is Basingstoke.

Last edited by Arcadius-8606 on 16 January 2022 at 8:10 pm UTC