Steam Games

Okay, I have been working on EXAPUNKS the last few weekends, and dreaming about it most nights. But I’m done with the main plot; got the achievement for proof, and I’m going to exorcise the game by writing down how I solved each puzzle. First, some of my solutions are optimal, some are terrible, most fall somewhere in between. The first rule of programming is to get something working. Once you have an implementation, then you can go back and refactor; many times, your first pass is good enough. My boss used to tell me not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good; a good solution that produces the desired results is better than a perfect solution that is never finished. You’ll see what I mean by that when I get to some of my solutions. ...

Basically Cyberpunk 2077, except you never leave your bedroom.

A warm, friendly murder mystery that doesn’t outstay its welcome and sets up themes that Persona 5 would eventually deconstruct.

Unsung Story, by Little Orbit, is the game I never thought I would see. It was due to be released five and a half years ago, but is only hitting early access on Steam now with a lot of work ahead of it. I had written it off. But, here it is – mostly. When the Kickstarter campaign for Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians launched, it pretty much promised to make exactly the game I wanted to play. A tactical adventure crafted by the master Yasumi Matsuno, legendary designer of Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Battle Let Us Cling Together, Ogre Battle March of the Black Queen and Vandal Hearts, among others. This is a genre he created – and now he was back with a game that moved a step beyond his earlier triumphs. Square grids? Unsung Story would use a hexagonal grid. Job tree? Unsung Story would use a job decagon, with ten different qualities coming together to form a unique job. ...

In a more consistent world, I’d have played Persona 4 before I played Persona 5. Not because the plots or characters of the two games are at all connected; they are not. It’s because I am continually seeing the P4 characters and plot through a P5 lens. And, I think this is maybe spoiling some plot twists for me, twists that P5 players were supposed to have been expecting. All Persona games share a similar theme. A series of supernatural events ensnares a high school student, who finds he can travel to a parallel world where people’s subconscious desires – their Shadows – are causing havoc in the real world. He finds he can summon a manifestation of his own inner self – a Persona – to battle these Shadows and free people caught in this parallel world. Other high school students join him and discover their own Personas. ...

I looked at all the RPGs I’ve played this year, trying to pick the one of them all that would be the best of the year. Several stood out, but I couldn’t pick just one. I guess if there were a game that I felt worth spending hours of my life playing, that proved its quality, maybe? Outer Wilds (PS4; finished January 26) This indie game about a hapless astronaut who is trying to stop their sun from exploding in (looks at watch) 24 minutes made a huge splash when it came out last year for all the right reasons. The clockwork solar system our astronaut lives in is full of puzzles everywhere you look. The lore is amazing. The physics are on point. And every 24 minutes, the sun explodes and you start from the beginning again, but you still have retained all you learned. ...

One really nice thing about playing a long, involved game like Assassins Creed Valhalla is that I don’t have to think about what game I want to play when I’m done work and chores in the evening. For the past month, it’s been off to Valhalla for a few hours. It’s the same feeling I get when I’m seriously into an MMO and logging in and saying hello to the guild is just a great start to an evening. ...

I am done with the early access content in Solasta: Crown of the Magister. I think Solasta did what it set out to do. It made a statement about how it would approach the modern era of D&D computer RPGs and how it sets itself apart from other modern offerings such as Pillars of Eternity, Divinity: Original Sin and Baldur’s Gate 3. And it made me eager to see what comes next. ...

While writing up yesterday’s post about my first experiences with Solasta, the D&D 5e-compatible RPG released to Steam early access a couple days ago, I found that I’d actually made the most boring adventuring party possible. Tank, healer, nuker, melee dps – those rules are enshrined in D&D legend as the minimum basis for any successful group. All on my own, I’d duplicated the pre-rolled party that Tactical Adventures had provided. I had verified that I was the most boring player in the known gaming universe. ...

This game flew entirely under my radar, but maybe it’s the Dungeons & Dragons 5e-compliant tactical RPG we need right now. Coming out at almost the same time the Baldur’s Gate 3 D&D 5e-compliant game was released to Steam early access, you can’t help but compare them. Like when “Volcano!” and “Dante’s Inferno” came out at the same time, or “Armageddon” and “That Other Giant Asteroid Hitting the Earth Movie” I can’t remember. (“Deep Impact”. Thanks, Google.) ...