Wagner James Au / New World Notes

One more recap from 2023 before yearly recaps get totally stale: My Steam playlist from last year.

Most games I personally enjoy in my off-hours are rarely metaverse platforms/virtual worlds/MMOs, because while playing anything in that broad category, I inevitably come across an interaction or experience that makes me think, "Hmm, I should write about that." Which feels like work! (Work I love, yes, but if I'm on break, I'm on break.)

Anyway, of the dozens I tried and of the many I enjoyed for an extended period, highlights include:

Immersive Action/Simulation

Control: Thrilling and moody action/adventure with heavy emphasis on gunplay merged with various telekinetic abilities. Loved the Stranger Things-esque government conspiracy backstory and the brutalist architecture, though the story itself was not as emotionally resonant as it could have been. (Completed)

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider: Standalone expansion to part 2 of the acclaimed Dishonored franchise (itself deeply inspired by the beloved Thief franchise), I actually enjoyed Outsider more than the first game, with a compelling hero voiced by Rosario Dawson, incredibly beautiful art and level design, and some of the most cleverly unique missions I've played in quite awhile. (Completed.)

Valheim: I admired this survival crafting sim more than I enjoyed it — great physics/craft and build system, and beautifully immersive. However, since I insisted on playing it solo, it got pretty brutally difficult quite quick, and I moved on.  

More after the break!

Turn-Based Strategy

Fights in Tight Places: My daily comfort snack while writing the book, a surprisingly successful combination of card game and turn-based martial arts. Unleash your inner Jason Statham, one move at a time. (Completed)

Jagged Alliance 3: Very worthy sequel to the classic turn-based tactical squad games of the 90s. A bit less personality than those original titles (the character-to-character interactions are not as comical or unpredictable), I also found the enemy AI relatively weak and easy to defeat. Still quite enjoyable. (Completed)

Shogun Showdown: Another great indie title — think Slay the Spire as a side scroller with better art and a Japanese pseudo-samurai/ninja theme. (Completed Day 1)

Showgunners: Fun squad-based strategy in a Running Man-style dystopian game show from hell. Excellent user-interface, serviceable story with good voice acting, interesting variations during combat missions. (Completed)

Honorable Mentions

Invincible: Based on a Stanislaw Lem short story, this is a vividly realized hard sci-fi adventure game of the walk simulator variety. One huge proviso, however: At a very specific point, the game started crashing on me consistently, to the point where I gave up playing. While I suspect the problem is unique to my specific laptop, buyer fucking beware! 

Forward: Very, very simple card-based RPG, enjoyable for very short gaming sessions. (Total quests take maybe 15 minutes to complete, but you usually die much sooner.)

I also loved, loved Return of the Obra Dinn, but didn't finish that until after the new year; hopefully will write more about that one soon.

What games did you play in 2023 that you recommend for 2024?