Wait, what?

Played quite a few games recently but I didn't post a lot of mini reviews here lately. That's going to change even though I'm keeping them extra short.

Leisure Suit Larry - Wet Dreams Don't Dry & Leisure Suit Larry: Wet Dreams Dry Twice

I'm combining them because they are very similar even if the second game is roughly 50% longer than the first. These are the latest games in the Larry series and are more true to the original than the 3D abonimations of the past. Tons of sexual innuendos and reasonable puzzles result in two very enjoyable games.

8/10

Nexomon

Bought this because I heard it's very similar to the Pokemon games and it's true. Quite good looking game and the story is better than whatever the Pokemon games offer. Sadly, it lacks a lot of features that even the oldest Pokemon games had (less types, no crits, just one kind of "Pokeball" (Nexotrap) etc.)

7.5/10

Nexomon Extinction

Holy crap this game is so much better than the first one. Huge improvements everywhere and as a complete package, I'd pick this over many of the early Pokemon games I've played. Story is great (there are lots of connections with the first one so it would help if you played that one first.), likeable and very funny characters, combat is improved everywhere, more content (took me 24 hours to complete the game and I barely cought any monsters and didn't max out any of them). Highly recommended.

9/10

Deponia Collection (4 games)

A game series I definitely overlooked. Point and click games with a very interesting setting and amazing characters. Dialogues are insanely funny (can't comment on the English version as I played it in German, which I usually don't but it felt appropriate considering it's a German game). The ending is a little controversial though and the 4th game came out of nowhere since it's basically over after the third game.
Sadly some of the puzzles are way over the top (some would say illogical) which resulted in me looking for hints quite a few times. Also the game can't quite keep up with the visuals which comes to no surprise as most are from the 2012-2013 era. Still rather timeless since they are all 2D games.

7.5/10

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe

Finally got to play this game and could see what the fuzz was about. It's a little different than I expected to be honest since the regular ending can be achieved in only 4 minutes. I certainly enjoyed my time but I expected the original game to have more content as I heard so many stories about all the decisions you can make. The Ultra Deluxe edition definitely added a lot to the game though. Fun game but rather short if you're not going for every single ending.

8.5/10

Shining Resonance Refrain

First off, I did not complete this game - far from it. Played it for around 5 hours but honestly I don't think I will continue. It's a port from the late PS3 era and it shows. Difficulty is all over the place. Simple mobs are very easy while every single boss can kill you (or a party member in max two hits). Your AI partners are braindead and will die during boss fights in the first two minutes. Combat is rather lame as well. SKIP!

6.5/10

PowerWash Simulator

GOTY right here (just kidding). Perfect game for watching YouTube on the side or listening to a podcast. Spent 38h to get my 1000G and yet I wouldn't quite call this a great game. It does what it promises, has lots of content but I would've been fine with shorter levels. The last one took me 4 hours to clean up.

7.5/10

Raji: An Ancient Epic Enhanced Edition

Can't really understand the meh-ish reviews for this game. Fluent combat, interesting world, great environments and a decent challenge. Glad that I finished it before it got removed from Game Pass.

8/10

Kaze and the Wild Masks

Great platformer that reminds me of the "recent" Rayman games. Great and precise gameplay and excellent level design make this a must play for platformer fans. Definitely challenging but never unfair. Story-wise there isn't much to talk about.

8.5/10

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tldr:

Buy Kaze and the Wild Masks, Nexomon Extinction and The Stanley Parable right now!
Also consider the others if you like the genre.

Has anyone here been playing Infinite on a somewhat regular basis? I'm only able to play for like 2-4 hours a week, so the grind to finish my battle passes have been slow lol. Hopefully I'll be done with both battle passes within the next month or two.

I'm still really enjoying the game! God the gameplay loop is so good lol

Hey, here's a hot take. With Xbox embracing their PC gaming legacy by dedicating a studio to Age of Empires and even publishing a 4X strategy game with Ara History Untold, they should try getting a licensing agreement with Lucasfilm to make a Star Wars RTS game the way Ensemble Studios helped develop Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds with LucasArts. That game was soooooooo good!!! Still is!

Not as much lately but I completed S1, and halfway through S2 of the battlepass. 

If we take about Xbox, for me it will be finishing these two games:

Azure Striker Gunvolt 3

AI: Somnium Files Nirvana Initiative

and playing these two when they come out:

Soul Hackers 2

Persona 5 Royal

If I manage to beat at least all these by the end of the year, I'll be satisfied. And if I have some spare time, maybe I'll play Star Ocean as well.

As I said this before numerous times, it's hard to blame Square Enix for not porting the games to Xbox. Different companies do business differently. Square just don't see the benefit of bringing certain smaller games to Xbox because they know they won't sell really well, and they probably know that whatever growth they can reach by bringing these games to Xbox, won't be enough for them from business perspective to even try. Other Japanese companies like Bamco, SEGA, etc. maybe also not satisfied with how their games sell on Xbox, but they see the potential for growth. Square most likely doesn't.

Finished The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope.

... Are they serious about that ending? I'm not going into the story aspects here but it's very predictable what happens throughout the game (because it basically repeats itself over and over again). What's not predicatble is the ending which kinda reminds me of criticism people had about Man of Medan's ending but this one here is so much worse.

There's another thing I need to mention. On a technical level - even with the big black bars - the performance still tanks on a regular basis.

Overall a pretty disappointing game. I prefer Man of Medan. House of Ashes didn't review any better so I'm not sure if I can look forward to playing that one. Will do it anyway eventually.

7/10

Optic looking hella strong!

Somewhat regular basis yes, it's my go-to multiplayer shooter these days. I think my season II battle pass is lvl70, this is without XP boosts or paying too mych attention to weekly challenges. 

Still loving the game. I'd like to play it even more but there's so many other games too. Sea of Thieves just got a kick-ass update!

The partnership will probably bring some ire with it because the CEO of Unity has gone from having sexual assault allegations, to calling developers that don’t use microtransactions “fucking idiots” to most recently, buying a malware company to infest their mobile games.