In last month’s recap I was bummed because I hadn’t finished any games in spite of my best efforts. Better news this month as I finished a few! Huzzah! With the deck cleared I was ready to decide what came next, and decided to try to do better about making use of Playstation Plus Extra, and to a lesser extent, Game Pass (I already play a fair number of Game Pass titles, actually). Also, I need to get more selective about what I get hooked on. There are SO many really really good games out there; arguably more than I have time to play. Mixing in “OK” games that I stick with out of stubbornness is starting to seem silly. It wasn’t too many years ago that I never finished ANY games and I made a concentrated effort to get better about that, and I think maybe I’ve swung too far the other way. Time to work on a happy medium and if I get to 15 or 20 hours in a game and I know I have a LONG way to go and the game is just “OK” it’s time to cut my losses and move on to something I enjoy more.

Final note: I was extra special bad about remembering to take screenshots this month. Sorry for the wall of text!

Playing

Finished Horizon Forbidden West, including the DLC, but didn’t go for the Platinum trophy or anything like that. There were even still areas of the map that I’d never visited, but by the time the DLC was over, I had had more than my fill of the world. Mind you I’ll definitely play Horizon #3, whenever it comes, but I do think Forbidden West was a bit too much of a good thing.

Finished Atlas Fallen and even wrote about it. This is a great example of what I was talking about in the intro. It was an OK game but I was pretty sick of it by the end and it’s not like I walked away bursting with fond memories of playing it or anything like that. I should have walked away earlier. The feather in my cap of saying “I finished” isn’t so fancy as to be worth the time I spent playing.

Finished The Gunk. I remember when The Gunk came out it was kind of a poster child for Xbox Game Pass, because it was a smaller game that, MS argued, might not do so well selling as a stand alone title but people would play it on Game Pass. Or something? Does anyone else remember that or am I inventing it? Anyway The Gunk has you exploring an alien world, using your vacuum cleaner arm to hoover up this gloppy substance called The Gunk. Early on it has the same satisfying feeling as playing Power Wash Simulator, only as you explore there are environmental puzzles to solve, most of them based on sucking things up and then throwing them. I didn’t track my time but How Long to Beat says 4-6 hours, and yet I still felt like it overstayed its welcome. The game got buggier the farther in I got, and they introduce some combat which always felt awkward as heck. The puzzles themselves were near perfect for me though. I never had to look anything up, but I was stumped for a bit a few times. So for me, perfect level of difficulty. But it just started feeling repetitive towards the end. Maybe if I’d spent a long Saturday session playing through I’d feel differently. I started this one in 2022 or something and finished earlier this week.

Finished Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition and that was a surprise. It’s the first time I’ve ever finished a Borderlands game. It was only 1 class and once the story was done, so was I, but still…this was the month I finally ‘got’ Borderlands. So much so that…

Started playing Borderlands 2 and I’m so far enjoying it quite a bit. I played almost all the classes until level 10 or so and then decided on the Technomancer (??). The little girl with the robot buddy. She does feel like Easy Mode but she makes me chuckle and isn’t as annoying as some of the player characters are. It’s been fun meeting characters I know of from a general awareness of Borderlands and overall, it’s just a fun game to churn through.

Warhammer Chaosbane was the first game I applied my new philosophy too. I have it via PS Plus and have had it installed forever. Figured I’d better play it in case it leaves (I can never remember which games are in the rotating collection and which are “permanent as long as you have PS+” collection). I did so, and spent about 14-15 hours and got to level 35 and the 3rd major area and it was… fine. But it really felt like going through the motions. It’s an ARPG so it’s probably more fun with friends, but in some ways it felt half finished, too. For instance you pick up gold from enemies and are awarded gold for quest completions but I never found a single thing to SPEND gold on. When you enter a new area you’ll be told “We have merchants and shrines if you need them” but neither is anywhere to be found. Anyway, point is I thought “This just feels like killing time.” so I stopped playing and deleted it to free up some space.

Death Stranding is another game I really want to finish, and I want to do so before Death Stranding 2 comes out later this year. This is my 3rd attempt to finish this game. What’s strange is that I REALLY like it but it takes a certain amount of inertia to get me to boot it up. It always feels like a game that is going to be kind of exhausting to play, though it really isn’t so I’m not sure why I feel that way towards it. Anyway if you aren’t familiar, Death Stranding has a strong asymmetrical multiplayer aspect where you can build things in the game world that other players can take advantage of, and vice versa. This far after launch the world isn’t quite as busy as it was when I first played when the game initially released, so when DS2 comes out I want to be ready to jump right in and run with the invisible-but-definitely-there crowd.

(The header image of this post is from Death Stranding, with Sam checking out a giant hologram/chirogram of a Tallneck from Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West.)

Watching

Arcane (Netflix) I’d watched the first season of this when it came out, but now I’ve got PartPurple hooked too. We’re watching the whole series and damn is it ever well done!!

Mythic Quest (Apple TV+) I’ve loved this show since episode 1 and so far my opinion hasn’t changed. I’d love to know what non-gamers think about it.

Reading

Finished Angel Fire East, book 3 in Terry Brook’s “Word & Void” series. I liked it better than book #2. Each of the 3 books in this series takes part over a holiday weekend and about ten years apart. Book 1 was 4th of July and the events took place in a large park in a small town, where the townsfolk played softball, picnicked and watched fireworks, all of which was quite relatable to me. Book 2 took place around Halloween in Seattle and the holiday didn’t really factor into it much, nor did Seattle feel as fully formed as the park in book #1. In book 3 we’re back to the park and small town only now it is Christmas and a snow storm and while there was a bit too many words spent on how many clothes our characters needed to put on before they went outside, it once again felt like a place I could see in my mind’s eye. As far as these being “Pre-Shannara” there was really nothing here to link the two worlds as far as I’m aware. Still, overall as a series I’d give these a thumbs up, but just a basic thumbs up, not a super enthusiastic thumbs up. They were enjoyable but ultimately kind of forgettable.

Armageddon’s Children is the next book in the Shannara series. We’re still in our world, though it is on its last legs. The year is around 2100 and the Earth has been ravaged by war, polution and disease. I was about a third of the way through it when I read a scene that I’m almost CERTAIN I have read before, so I’m thinking maybe I read this series back in the day. On the other hand it isn’t THAT old (published in 2006) and I’d like to think I can remember back that far. So we’ll see. Maybe I read an excerpt or something.

One of the only good things about getting old is that you can re-read or re-watch things from like 40 years ago and it’s like you’re experiencing them for the first time all over again!! LOL

So yup, that’s February. The world is a dumpster fire, but at least I had a pretty good month of gaming. Hey I take the wins where I can get them!!