Killer 7 was originally a GameCube game released by Capcom in 2005. I played it at the time, but got stuck in the theme park level. It’s since been ported to Windows, and plays brilliantly on the Steam Deck. At the time of original release it was unlike anything else, and although it is still an unusual game it stylistically fits in well with a lot of modern indie games.
Fatal Labyrinth is a roguelike RPG for the Mega Drive by Sega released in 1991. It’s a very early example of the genre for consoles. There are thirty randomly generated floors of a dungeon to explore, then you need to kill a dragon and collect a goblet. I found it quite easy, which is surprising since these games are normally extremely hard. When you die you don’t start completely from scratch but can restart from a checkpoint in an earlier floor.
This is written by the guy that wrote The Stanley Parable, which I absolutely love. You are presented with a series of tiny games that are supposedly created by a friend of his, while he narrates his thoughts about what they mean and what it tells us about the creator of the games.
I just finished Yakuza 0 on the Steam Deck. You play as Kazama Kiryu who gets accused of a murder he didn’t commit, and Goro Majima who is being forced to run a cabaret club and is not allowed to leave his city. The game is really long, both characters stories could be a standalone game. They end up tying together in a really interesting way I didn’t see coming though.
This month’s book club pick.
Absolutely amazing. I remembered this being my favourite for a long time when I was a kid, and I can see why. This is such a massive step up from the previous books in the series. Pyramids had something to say about tradition and dogma, this has something to say about human beings. The characters have significantly more depth to them, and the plot threads are followed in more detail and tie together brilliantly.
This month’s book club pick. I loved most of this, but wish it spent less time lecturing me and gave some more nuance to the characters. I don’t really need convincing about it’s themes, and I think the message might have come across as more powerful if I was allowed to think about what was happening rather than being told how I should feel about it all the time.
I hadn’t played this in a very long time. I remembered feeling a bit let down after Sonic 2, and I think that probably still stands. It’s a great game, but the levels are too long and the ending is a bit anti-climactic. I managed to get all the chaos emeralds tough, the bonus levels get very hard!
I didn’t really know much about the KLF other than some of the hits and that they burnt a million quid. I was expecting this to just be a simple musical biography, it is a lot more interesting than that.
This is the second book I’ve read this year that features pyramids being built very quickly due to time being controlled (after Echoes of the Great Song). I don’t know if that’s a thing, or a coincidence.
The pacing felt much too slow. There are points where something exciting is supposed to be happening and the author spends paragraphs detailing where people are sitting and what clothes they’re wearing.
99% detailing all the current failings of the UK political and economic situation, 1% asking a few questions about what might be done.
I got Arcade Paradise from a Humble Bundle this year, and just got around to playing it. I had never heard of the game before and had no idea what it was like. The game is a first person business simulation where you’re running a laundromat that happens to have some arcade machines in the back room. At first you’re just trying to keep up with emptying coin machines and the loads of laundry coming in, but as you get more money you can invest in more arcade machines.
This felt brutally honest at points. I’m really surprised at some of the stories he tells.
I played Chants of Sennaar on Steam Deck after buying it on a whim. It’s a wonderful adventure game about communication. There are multiple groups of people in the world each of which speak a different language, you can’t understand any of them and none of the groups can speak to each other.