Lathany

It's been something of a tiring day. I did manage to get to the park this morning - a lot of dog walkers and dogs were out for their own muddy walks. Work... progressed. And I'm not ready to talk about January yet. I've been playing Chimera Squad this evening. Again.

Things over the last week:
- C's cat Cooper has learned how to get onto the top of the door. Sadly, he has not learned how to come down (other than to yowl until a human gets him).
- Dom bought me roses. The orange ones are all "Yeah! Let's go!" The yellow ones are "OK, we'll open a bit." The red ones are "Shan't."
- We had our first visitor last Thursday. Martin came over for food and to look through old photos from our childhood.
- Kentucky Route Zero continues to be weird, I might post some screenshots from the acts so far. I don't know how to describe it other than a bit not-quite-text-adventure and knows it. Also, a little bit dark.
- We had our road dug up and new gas pipes put in. Fortunately the weather had warmed a little, so losing the heating for most of the day wasn't a problem.

My review of Speed Dating for Ghosts (an Xmas present from Martin) was accepted by GameFAQs. Short version: As titled, short and interesting.

GameFAQs just published my review of XCOM Chimera Squad.

Set after XCOM 2, this strategy game focuses on the missions and interactions of a small mixed-species team. Essentially, it's a good strategy game with a slightly more anime feel.

Various things from the last few days:
- I told work that I was planning to make spag bol on Friday evening. A said she'd looked up the recipe, wondering what sort of exotic thing it was and then realised. "Doesn't say much for my Italian roots," she commented ruefully.
- In Monster Hunter World, for the first time I played for an hour or so without Mr Fox as I had some catch-up to do. Half-way through his Palico (NPC sidekick) turned up to help me. And talked to my Palico about how great his Monster Hunter was.
- Bea and I tried nail varnish from A-England (with thanks to Antonia). Hers is purple and mine is blue. So far the colour is lovely, but both needed multiple coats.
- I've proof-read nine short stories this weekend (three of them mine) as my writers' group is going to print them in a book.
- Dark Fall: Ghost Vigil is rather good, and I plan to write a review now I've finished it. It's an indie game involving ghost gadgets, general creepiness and an OK plot/concept.
- XCom Chimera Squad is both rather different from standard XCom and rather awesome.

GameFAQs just posted my review of Draugen.

Short, creepy and with a concept that would be a huge spoiler. Sadly, doesn't answer everything it raises, but still worth looking at.

My Return of the Obra Dinn review is up on GameFAQs.

A summary:

It's the second game from the guy who wrote Papers, Please. Obra Dinn is set aboard a ghost ship in the early 19th Century. The ship’s crew and passengers have all mysteriously died or disappeared. The player, as an agent of the shipping company assessing what happened, has to find out how each death took place. The game, played from the first-person view, uses a one-bit monochromatic graphical style inspired by games on early Macintosh systems.

The player uses a combination of deductive reasoning and a special item (a Memento Mortem stopwatch) to return to the moment of a crew member's death to determine their fate. The player needs deductive reasoning and every sort of clue to solve all the fates. Basically, it's a logical reasoning game.

My review has been published on GameFAQs.

Short version: I enjoyed it, liked the mechanics, but didn't think it said much new about androids.

GameFAQs has posted my review of The Last Door. Interesting horror game (described by its creators as "Lovecraft inspired"), although very old-school pixel graphics.



bateleur was immediately reminded of Guybrush Threepwood.

It is an interesting game with a decent concept, reasonable puzzles and, despite those graphics, really does make you jump in places (and eeewwww). It's a few hours long.

My review of Goetia is now on GameFAQs.

It's a rather nice point-and-click ghost story. It has a decent concept - you play a ghost trying to discover what happened to her family and why she has risen from her grave. It's set during the second world war and has lovely graphics. The main downside is that whilst many of the puzzles are interesting, quite a few are very hard as there isn't much to direct you to what you are trying to do.