Gaming

Just got the final star spirit in Paper Mario on my N64. Getting close I think! Trying to not use a guide (relatively easy in this game). Been loving it so far. Getting the timing right can be tricky in the battles though!

Also playing Mole Mania on my handheld. Great little game that has me puzzling out solutions. Cute art and animations too!

I just finished Neon White. Loved the puzzle platform levels. I haven't enjoyed something like that in a while.

I just finished watching a New Frame Plus youtube video of their pick of 2025 Best Animated Games. In that video, I found a game called Blasphemous. Souls like pixel sidescroller. It's grim and challenging. Right up my alley. Found the game for sale in GoG so no regrets.

I took my 3DS XL on vacation because I knew I'd be waiting in lots of lines. Dipped in to Tomodachi Life (3DS), made some more progress in Pokémon Omega Ruby, and had some fun with a bunch of arcadey titles like pac-man championship edition and the 3ds version of Dr. Mario. Also took some 3D photos with the 3DS' camera, which I didn't really give much appreciation to back in the day.

Back at home and I've gotten back into the Sims 2 which I'm playing on my Steam deck after tinkering around with a custom control scheme for a while.

I finished Pentiment yesterday. It's fantastic. I was fighting with clunky controls a bit at the start, but I'm really glad I did not give up.

RPG elements (i.e. character progression) are very basic, gameplay-wise it's like crossbreed between point and click adventure and walking (& talking) simulator. No action whatsoever, just walking and talking. And still it's a great game. How? It's all about the story, characters and your interactions with them. All writing is great, as we can expect from Obsidian. The entire game I wanted to progress further and further just to see what happens next, how people react to what you do, how tables turn and the game did not disappoint in this regard. Also art style, sound effects (like writing sounds when dialogs roll) and fragments of music helps it a lot to get that "medieval" atmosphere.

I won't spoil the story in case there are still people who haven't played it yet, I'll just tell the game has three acts, where first one is the most non-linear and open and each subsequent one is more narrow and linear as the story continues. And while it might look like it's limiting, it fits the storytelling well, so no problem with me. There are quite a few story twists during the game so I honestly enjoyed it a lot and I didn't know how it would wrap up to the very end.

The game gets 5/5 from me and I can highly recommend it to everyone seeking calm gameplay focused on story and characters. It is similar to games like Disco Elysium in this regard, although the gameplay is still very different. It's also one of those games you want to start over right away to see how different choices you make alters the story and the ending, which doesn't happen very often (at least not to me). Thumbs up!

Made it to Act 2 in my current Baldur's Gate 3 run. Since this is my first time going Dark Urge, I'm not playing on Honor Mode (although same difficulty settings, except not single save), and I'm definitely save scumming more, even if you ignore the times I'm just trying new stuff (did the exploit to kill Raphael in Act 1 for the first time for his loot).

I'm also using (sub)classes that I've never or rarely used this time. Swashbuckler is pretty neat and Druid Owlbear form is just dumb (in a good way). Frost Sorcerer seems neat, but I don't really care about getting enemies wet first for double damage, so I might just switch that build down the line. Wildheart Barbarian can really chunk, although it's mostly just hitting people with your stick. I then made Karlach to a dual crossbow Arcane Trickster, mainly for a token ranged build (I'm really melee heavy otherwise), but I'm not really feeling it, so I might change that up as well later.

I'm definitely starting to get burned out on BG3, since I played like 200h in the last two months or something. Although it's not like I'm fiending to play anything else right now (although I have a huge backlog), so it's still fine.

I finished Withering Rooms a few days ago, having done both a full first playthrough and a quick run through NG+ to get the ending exclusive to NG+. Since then I've been in that odd spot where I'm kind of having trouble moving on to the next game. I just keep thinking about Withering Rooms.

This game was so amazingly good, it is seriously unbelievable it is the work of a solo dev. Especially since he also composed pretty much all the music - and the music is as phenomenal as the game. I don't think I've been this impressed with a solo dev since Lucas Pope and Obra Dinn.

If you vibe in any way with what you see on the Steam page, I heavily encourage you giving it a shot. It is one of the most unique games I've ever played, which is funny because it simultaneously wears its inspirations on its sleeves. But the influences never end up leading to derivative end product, instead they are just the foundation for the very distinctive artistic vision of an auteur developer that is doubtlessly doing his own thing.

And it's not just about the story and world building and art direction and atmosphere, but the gameplay and build variety is also really good. All the gameplay systems are so well designed, the puzzles are intuitive and the game has so many thoughtful little touches you wouldn't expect from the first game of a solo dev, especially on the QOL front.

The combat itself is a little clunky, but you do get used to it and there are several ways to build both melee and spellcasting, there is a ranged weapon build that leans more into consumables, you can sneak around and place traps, you can be a summoner... Probably more that I didn't think of yet. And using all these different tools is a lot of fun.

Having played this I am unbelievably excited for the sequel, which enters Early Access this year.