• 🎮
• recap

I don’t play as many video games as I’d like to, especially with how much I think about them. Getting the Steam Deck last year really helped me play more during work downtime and I’m super happy with that purchase. Most of the games I get are smaller indie games that don’t have super long hour counts, at least to get to points where I’d feel happy saying I “completed” / “beat” the game. I never had the desire to 100% games and just getting to credits is accomplishment enough. Though, I also rarely get to credits on games and not just because I play lots of open ended sim games. I’ve gotten to the very last level of Ape Out, couldn’t beat it, and still consider it one of my favorite games of all time. My current “on the last level” game is Hades and really wanted to beat it this year, especially before Hades 2 releases, but I’ve only made 2 run attempts all year. So what follows is the list of every game I’ve played this year for some meaningful amount of time (more than like 10 mins or so). Of the the games that I own but haven’t played yet, Neva is really the only one I am super looking forward to. I adore Nomada’s previous game Gris so I bought Neva day it was released. I had intentions of streaming it for my friends but there just wasn’t a good time where we had the 4 or 5 hours to play thru it. So I’ve given up on that for right now and just need to find that time to be able to do in one sitting because I know I’ll hate having to put it down.

Don’t Like

Just to get the downers out of the way quickly. I’ve tried these games, probably haven’t even put in an hour into any single game, but they just weren’t grabbing me.

• Deadlock
• Marvel Rivals
• Absolute Drift
• Parcel Corps Demo

Deadlock and Marvel Rivals

I think I just have to admit to myself that I’m bad at shooters. Everyone gets too competitive too quickly for multiplayer games and that’s all these types of games have to offer. I still occasionally play Overwatch 2 with my friends and some of us have played Marvel Rivals together, but I just don’t have the bandwidth to learn new heroes and new abilities at the rate I play with them.

Absolute Drift

The technical skill for this to get the turning just right is too difficult for me. It’s a beautiful game and I think really well designed, it’s just not for me.

Parcel Corps demo

I think I’m going to have to give this a second shot, the setup I was playing this game with was a little awkward and caused some lag issues. I just struggled with maneuvering the bike around without getting frustrated. I like the concept of the game and the pitch sounded like something I’d really enjoy but sadly it wasn’t for me.

Most Played (and therefore my favorites)

• AdVenture Communist
• art of rally
• Timberborn
• Coffee Golf
• Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders Demo

AdVenture Communist

This is a mobile clicker game that I would probably find unplayable, except for the fact that my ad blocker happens to work for the in-game ads and it just gives me the bonus without having watched whatever ad it wanted me to. Thankfully it doesn’t make progress so difficult that you have to buy the boosts, of which there are plenty for sale. The game is the perfect right after waking up and right before bed game to just pop open and click the little buttons for like 5 mins.

art of rally

A gorgeous rally racing game, taking place in the “alternate world” where Group B racing was never banned. The difficulty is just easy enough that I’m able to compete moderately well against the CPUs and still progress. I find most enjoyment from the game by just competing against myself and seeing my skill at controlling the cars get better as I race more. Each race is also the perfect length that I can play in short sessions which is ideal for work.

Timberborn

Outside of probably AdVenture Communist, I haven’t put more hours into any other game this year and I definitely haven’t put more hours per session; I’ve played a bit more than 50 hours. This is a city builder game where your workers and citizens are beavers building their colony. The game has been in early access for 3 years so far, and I played soon after the Badwater update was released at the beginning of the year. I really loved the beaver theming of it and thought they did a good job theming buildings and jobs around that. I played on an easier difficulty just because I find the enjoyment in these games about designing the cities and not so much from resource management. I probably won’t play this game much (if at all) until it’s 1.0 release but am eagerly looking forward to it.

Coffee Golf

The only other mobile game I regularly play, this mini-golf game has perfect bite sized daily courses with no par limit. I enjoy doing my best to try and get a “Top 10%” ranking. My biggest gripe with the game is it has a daily streak, and sometimes I just forget to play or think I did and ended up not. I get really really discouraged when I see a streak end, had one that was around 65 and just stopped playing the game for a week after it broke. I got it back up to 20ish and then broke it and haven’t played in a month. I’ll probably pick it back up after the new year and just do my best to purposefully break the streak so I don’t get that discouragement again. They also have regular levels mode that just goes up in difficulty but those have stroke limits and I find less fun.

Lonely Mountains: Snow Riders demo

Lonely Mountains: Downhill is one of my all time favorite games and played it on my Switch when it was ported there. So I was really excited and hotly anticipating the sequel when they announced it during the summer. I played as much of this demo as I could the couple of days after it was released and I love it. I think it builds perfectly on what they did in the first game and they have the feel of riding through different types of snow down pat. The only thing I am torn about with this game is if I should get it on Switch to live with the first one or get it on Steam.

Binged and haven’t picked back up

• 140
• Lightyear Frontier
• Dorfromantik
• Mini Motorways

140 was gifted to me by a coworker, it’s a music/sound based platformer and I was able to get thru at least the first half of the levels over one long work week. I picked it up for one quick session after that and just haven’t seriously gone back to it. I enjoyed the parts of the game I played of it, but it just got too hard and I took too long between sessions that I’ve lost the little bit of skill I developed for it. Lightyear Frontier is a mech farming game where you land on a planet and have build, do some exploring, and farming. I need to follow the quests a bit more closely cause I would get a little lost doing little maintenance tasks and then not have gotten anything done for a while and feel a bit bored because I haven’t progressed. Dorfromantik is a hex based puzzle game where you build a rural landscape with little towns, farms, water, and railroads. You’re given bonuses for connecting tiles that are similar together and will get little missions to build things like a 40 tiles forrest or railroad that’s 20 tiles long. It’s simple enough that I was able to learn all the basics very quickly and then would figure out little tricks for getting bigger bonuses on my own as I played. Despite being turn based and easy to lay down and pick back up, I don’t like doing that because I tend to forget my plans after putting it down for a day. Mini Motorways is a good follow-up to Mini Metro. It usually takes me an attempt or two to beat a level but I am slowly figuring smart placement and planning of the different features.

One Very Good Session

• ColdRidge
• The Farmer Was Replaced
• Fields of Mistria
• Golden Lap
• Tiny Glade
• Thronefall
• Rusty’s Retirement

ColdRidge was a game I got on a whim because of this Aftermath review. I only recently got it, so I haven’t had a chance to play it much, but the first session was for 1 in game season and I really enjoyed it. The Farmer Was Replaced is a programming farming game. You tell what the automated bots should do by writing python-esq code for them to follow. It was a fun game to run, but I was doing it on my steam deck with a keyboard which was just a bit too awkward to get into. I have plans on installing it on one of my desktop computers and getting deeper into it. Fields of Mistria was brought to my attention from this Polygon review and I was able to get it on sale. I haven’t played many in-game days but so far it’s got the good bits of Stardew Valley in it. I’m actually hoping it’s early access nature will help me here in that things don’t get so deep or complicated that I get overwhelmed and end up not playing. Golden Lap is a race team manager game by the same developers as art of rally and Absolute Drift. I was a very bad manager my team lost every race it entered in that first session. I think this’ll have to be a game I dedicate a week to just play while traveling for work to understand enough to get ok with. Tiny Glade is another Aftermath review purchase and I like this little sandbox games that don’t really have any “gameification” to them. You just get to build pretty little houses. I’ll probably end up using this as a sorta tool to make pictures for role-playing games I run for my friends. Thronefall is a fun tower defense game where you also get to control a single hero unit. I’ve been playing on the steam deck and think the controls are pretty well suited but struggle at times with selecting units quickly, it will definitely be better when I play with a mouse and keyboard. I also thoroughly enjoy the art style and think that is one of the big reasons I want to keep playing, it’s simple enough to get all info across while not getting to bland to look at for long periods. Rusty’s Retirement is an idle-farming game that is designed to just live on your desktop as you do other things. I had it opened for a bit and got some decent upgrades and plots placed. But it isn’t super suited to the way I work on my desk and just would keep forgetting about it or it would get in the way of some other work I was trying to do.

Enjoy but don’t play that frequently

• Marvel Snap
• Pumped BMX+
• Stardew Valley
• Tents and Trees

I played a lot of Marvel Snap when it was released, mostly because it was what my friends were playing and it was nice talking about it with them. I started playing again with the introduction of the Alliances, but will only do like a game or two a week. Similar problems I have with multiplayer shooters, where everyone gets too sweaty and I just enjoy playing my non-optimal decks in the low ranks. Pumped BMX+ is a side scrolling platformer in the vein of Trials where you have to beat a score or perform a trick to get enough points to go to the next level. This is a nice game I can boot for a session when I really don’t want to have to do anything that requires too much energy. Stardew Valley is a game I’ve had for ages but only really play multiplayer with my friends who are much much more into it than me. I’ll be the stay-at-farm husband who just does all the boring chores while they get to go and talk to everyone and optimize things that I don’t understand. It’s a really nice and relaxing way to play the game while getting to hang out with them. Tents and Trees is a fun logic puzzle game that’s similar to a nonogram (without making a cool picture) that I’ll play on my phone when I remember I have it installed.