Games Beaten - November 2023

It seems like no one has done the monthly post for this yet, so I guess I'll create it again?

Anyways, this has been by far my best month of gaming ever since April of 2020. I ended up beating 9 Games in Total here, most of them VERY short games. But I had my fair share of awesome games, a couple of pretty good ones and a couple of ones that I didn't gel with too much. I'll also start putting my Retirements here if I have any.

Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard (Xbox Series X, 11/05, 7/10)
Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo Switch, 11/06, 9/10 - BEST)
Frog Detective 3: Corruption at Cowboy County (Xbox Series X, 11/13, 8/10)
Frog Detective: The Entire Mystery (Xbox Series X, 11/13, 8/10)
Toree 3D (PC, 11/15, 7/10)
Toree 2 (PC, 11/16, 8/10)
Super Kiwi 64 (PC, 11/17, 5/10)
Mail Time (PC, 11/18, 4/10 - WORST)
A Short Hike (PC, 11/23, 9/10)

Retirements:

Cavern Of Dreams (PC, 3/10)

Alright, this is going to be a bit of a ramble so be warned, I have LOADS to talk about. I finished the remaining Siactro developed games including Toree 3D, Toree 2 and Super Kiwi 64. I didn't really enjoy Kiwi too much as I found it to be so dull and shallow even compared to the other games I've played from the one man developer. I don't have much to say other than I just wasn't having too much fun with it. Toree 3D was pretty good and I thought in general it was pretty satisfying to play. This and it's sequel, Toree 2 reminded me a lot of Sonic Adventure 2 which I grew up constantly playing. I think Toree 2 is a much better game as it improves upon a lot of elements from the first game and it's by far more interesting. I just wish the developer wasn't so insistent on adding pointless horror elements that ruin the tone it's going for. They literally put a FREAKING jump scare in Toree 2. Like what the hell? Are you trying to scare kids away?

In terms of other games I beat this month was the Frog Detective trilogy. I finished Case of the Invisible Wizard and Corruption at Cowboy County. Invisible Wizard definitely has a better story than the first game and it's not as predictable, but the humor is not as funny despite many mild laughs of amusement here and there. Thankfully, the writing for these games are VERY strong, as with Cowboy County. I think Cowboy County is a better game considering I had no idea where the story was going to go plus it's WAY more funnier than Invisible Wizard I felt and it introduced a couple of new things like the Scooter and having a third act where you play as a character from the very first game. They ended up having tons of running gags and jokes from previous games be paid off which I loved plus I think the characters have way more depth than in previous games. Thus, I also beat The Entire Mystery, which was the compilation of all three games on Xbox Series X. Very much recommend you play them.

I retired one game, that being Cavern of Dreams which I found to be extremely frustrating and infuriating. The controls are not very good and gliding is so slow so I had no confidence in making any of my jumps to platforms. You have no means of defending yourself despite the fact that there's enemies in this game and if you get hit you get smacked around like a god damn tennis ball which sucks ass. The game also can PUNISH you for not making jumps and make you backtrack. And I don't mean just having to do that jump again in the same area, I MEAN throwing you into another part of the world and having to make your way back slowly to where you where because your character moves as fast as a snail. I just couldn't stand it and I was so frustrated. Don't be fooled by the N64 Graphics and Cute Protagonist, this is NOT worth your time. It feels like a greatest hits compilation but instead of all the bangers it's every single terrible B-Side if that makes any sense.

Mail Time also disappointed me and I found the game to just not function properly. I had tons of bugs where my controller input died a lot among many other annoyances. It also has a character who moves super slow and is super unlikable and spouts some of the worst jokes that are horribly unfunny. The controls are not very good, the physics seem to be completely non existent, traversing through the small open world is shallow, it's just a giant fetch quest simulator in general which sucks, the level design I felt was tedious, the only redeeming factors are the good art direction when talking with characters and the okayish music. Also, like another game I'm going to talk about (A Short Hike), it suffers from what I'm going to call ALL CAPS QUIRKINESS, where the developer thinks that if you have your character SPEAK IN ALL CAPS it's hilarious when it isn't. I'm getting sick of this in so many of these 3D Platformer games. Avoid.

Now to the excellent games! A Short Hike was pretty awesome. As a game, it's fine, but as a piece of art, it's amazing. It reminded me of my life back last year when my mom went to Chemo and had surgery on her breast to remove cancer and it moved me deeply. I really enjoyed the atmosphere, graphics, music, world, it's powerful and relatable messages and great story made this a must play in my eyes. Don't miss it.

And finally, the best game I played this month was of course, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which is another testament to how I feel Nintendo is the king of Platformers. I absolutely had an amazing time with this game. The level design rules, the graphics colorful and astonishing, the music excellent, the controls and gameplay are top tier for a 2D Mario game, the setting of The Flower Kingdom is completely memorable, there's a couple moments that just stick out in my head completely, this is obviously a game where there was so much love put into it which I adored. It goes to show why I love Mario and why I think Nintendo are the kings of First Party Games, so this is an absolute must play if you have a Switch. I only had a few complaints in general, specifically the idiotic decision to only have one dedicated save file per user which forces you to make another user profile just to have a single player and multiplayer game on the go at the same time. Other than that I loved it. It's without a doubt a game I had a blast with.

Now, I don't know what's going to happen in December. I hope to finish AMID EVIL and it's expansion The Black Labyrinth but this Christmas I hope to get Super Mario RPG and play that for the remainder of December and January. I also hope to try and get to Jusant, but we'll see. That's about it from me.

Pretty slow month for me, only beat 3 games as I did not have as much time to play as I would have liked. Hopefully going to change that in December:

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (PlayStation 5, 11/12, 10/10)
Assassin's Creed Mirage (Xbox Series X, 11/22, 8/10)
Call of Duty 2 (Xbox Series X, 11/26, 6/10)

Currently playing Evil West and Crysis 2 Remastered on the Xbox, New World on PC, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder on my Switch. Might begin my Baldur's Gate 3 playthrough on PS5 here in a couple weeks, so that should be fun! Definitely looking forward to beating more games in December compared to November.

Light Fairytale - Episode 2 - Nintendo Switch - November 27, 2023
Light Fairytale - Episode 1 - Nintendo Switch - November 25, 2023
Lord Winklebottom Investigates - Nintendo Switch - November 25, 2023

Probably would have finished Figment 2 if I’d had more time, but I still finished a few. Would love to start The Storytale at some point.

I just realized all of my completions happened to be “L”s. 🤨

King's Quest 1: Quest for the Crown (SCI remake)
Mario Party 3 (story mode)
Paper Mario 64

Really went for old stuff...and replays... this month. I wanted to complete more but that just didn't happen.

This was a pretty good month for me, I took a break in the middle there but I still beat a good amount of games.

WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Wii) - 1:41 November 5th
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (PC) - 1:36 November 6th
Duke Nukem 3D 20th Anniversary World Tour (PC) - 6:24 November 21st
Alan Wake Remastered (PS5) - 9:31 November 26th
Wolfenstein 3D (PC) - 5:00 November 29th
Ninjabread Man (Wii) - 1:28 November 30th

Duke Nukem 3D was definitely the highlight this month, it made me realize I love boomer shooters and I'll be playing more soon!

1. Strahl (3DO)
2. Totsugeki Kikan (Karakuri) Megadasu!! (3DO)
3. Magical Taruruto-kun (GEN)
4. Lucienne's Quest (3DO)
5. Puyo Puyo CD Tsuu (TCD)
6. Puyo Puyo (GEN)

Games
11/01 Resident Evil 5
11/05 F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate
11/10 Metal Gear Solid Replay
11/13 Marvel's Spider-Man 2
11/23 Axiom Verge
11/25 Toree 3D
11/30 Toree 2

DLC
11/05 Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares
11/05 Resident Evil 5: Desperate Escape

Pretty busy month for me overall and I ended up not getting around to trying out as many things as I hoped for near the end of the month. Spider-Man 2 was probably my favorite of the games I completed, with F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate being the worst.

2023-11-18 - Hades - PC - 38h49m - Replay

That was a second playthrough. Still very fun, a really good game.

Bramble: The Mountain King - PlayStation 5
Pumpkin Jack - PlayStation 5
Song of the Deep - PC

A decent month for me. I finished a huge, large and three small games (see my game size guide at the end), some of which I've been playing over a long period.

11-Nov-2023 - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords (PC) – 47H30M
16-Nov-2023 - Layton and the Miracle Mask (3DS) – 19H35M
20-Nov-2023 - FAR: Lone Sails (PC) – 3H41M
27-Nov-2023 - The Descendant (PC) – 5H36M
29-Nov-2023 - A Good Snowman is Hard to Build (PC) – 2H16M

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords has a big following, but it just did not do it for me. The story was so muddled that it destroyed any enjoyment of the game. I felt this was a step down from the first game and did not improve much on the mechanics that were used before.

The same goes for Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask which proved that you must have a focused narrative. Sure, game mechanics are important, and the story can be simple. But the moment you pad the story with all kind of nonsense twists, the player just lose the reason to want to continue. Some awkward puzzles and not great explanations for some of the puzzles summed up a game that I was happy to see finish.

Lucky for me, it was the indie bunch that proved some real value this month. Far: Lone Sails used atmosphere and charm to great effect, really hammering in the freedom of travel and the appreciation between men and the machines they maintain.

The Descendant is a point-and-click adventure with a cinematic narrative which obviously suffered from the lack of budget but still delivered a decent (although not great) story.

A Good Snowman is Hard to Build is a simple puzzle game with a single mechanic but it is adorable and charming and showcases a little indie done right.

As surprising as it might sound, Far: Lone Sails is my game of the month. It's not amazing, but it's better than anything else I played.

For next month, I'm at the advanced stages of Mortal Shell, The Room 3 and Faery: Legends of Avalon, so I expect at least three more completions before the end of the year.

My Game Size Guide:
Tiny (0-2 hours), Small (2-6 hours), Medium (6-14 hours), Large (14-30 hours), Huge (30-62), Epic (62+)

November completions:

Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon - Nov 05
Kirby's Blowout Blast - Nov 06
Cube Escape Collection - Nov 07
Kirby's Dream Land - Nov 11
Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight - Nov 15
Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy - Nov 15
New Pokémon Snap - Nov 23

Looking back on these completions... November was definitely not how I remembered. I don't think any of the games completed left a very strong impression on me either way, but I feel like I had a lot of fun gaming this past month. This is probably because apart from this I put about ~50hs into Yakuza 5 and ~35 into Octopath Traveler, and those I'm enjoying quite a bit!

All in all, I'd say this was a good month. I'm making good progress in my journey through the Yakuza series, and counting both the games I'm currently playing and the random Pokemon completion I finally got around to actually tackling some of the longer games in my backlog that have been there forever. Progress!

Random side-note, now I'm at 99 completions this year! Probably the year I've completed most games in my whole life if I had to guess already

Completed
Ghostrunner II (2023)
Jusant (2023)
Requiem: Avenging Angel (1999) //normal
Nightmare House 2 (2015) [hl2 mod] //hard
Kya: Dark Lineage (2003)
The Talos Principle 2 (2023) //100%
God of War: Chains of Olympus (2008) //hard
Half-Life: Uplink (1999) //hard

Replayed
The Swapper (2013)
Half-Life (1998) //Hard

best easily Talos Principle 2. it pretty much my 2023 goty. love environments, puzzles, themes, atmosphere, soundtrack and ended quite emotional...
worst Requiem. it just veri weird game... bosses straight up suck no arguing. veri unpolished feel to game, but i do like some moods... and some powers

was good time for Half-Life anniversary update cause wanted to replay it for one last time.. i wont be replaying it anymore cause hl series are like most replayed games and just know everies too well. this was actually first time i did it on hard difficulty and i only used autosaves. there were some challenging parts especially with soldiers and few sections where it felt like they forgot to put autosaves at all, but it all fine. That helicopter at big cliffs was quite joke compared to what i remember in Black Mesa remake. I still so love XEN and even platforming parts of it was quite easy to manage which i was alil afraid could be problem without quicksaving. Uplink was nice lil addition. I do remember seeing it on cousin's pc centuries ago, but never actually played it before..

So I finished a few things in November, most of my time, though, was spent on the various installments of the first Dawn of War.

Walkure Romanze - A simple little visual novel with the added bit of spice of jousting as a sport. That gives the title a bit of variety and action, otherwise, it was a pretty by-the-numbers experience, though certainly not a bad one.

Dawn of War - Winter Assault - Another nice campaign after the base game, now with two sides and four different factions. has a bit more variety than the base game.

Dawn of War - Dark Crusade - The new races are cool, but I preferred the actual campaigns of the base game and Winter Assault. The campaign is just a big free-for-all to conquer the map with the faction of your choice. While I didn't care for the filler battles the stronghold maps were at least hand-crafted scenarios. While I would say that fighting the same battles with every faction gets stale I still managed the play through the campaign 3 entire times, so the core gameplay is fun enough.

Beat only one game this month which is for a variety of reasons. The last two weeks I've had it very busy with a college project so those weeks I didn't really have any free time. I got back into making content for my YouTube channel which is what I spent most of my free time doing. Although I did beat the first chapter of Higurashi when they cry (it was amazing btw), but since it's only a part of a game, Im not counting it.

November 5th - Immortality - 14 h 42 m - (Main+) 6/10 - Saw all of the clips and kind of understand the overarching plot. Got 24/27 achievements.

Super short TLDR of my review:

Immortality: Better gameplay but worse plot than Her Story

I've tried a lot of titles this month but only rolled the credits in about 10 of them. I also got 100% achievements in 4 of the games.

11/01 - Metro Last Light
11/03 - The Dark Pictures Little Hope
11/05 - Iconoclasts
11/06 - Alan Wake + both DLCs
11/11 - Unpacking (100%)
11/12 - Postal: Brain Damaged (100%)
11/13 - The Legend of Tianding (100%)
11/24 - Inscryption
11/27 - The Entropy Centre
11/28 - Psychonauts 2 (100%)

Alan Wake II (PlayStation 5) - November 07, 2023 - 32h 42m - Time was taken from the last Quick Save after beating the game, so it is not entirely accurate. - Normal difficulty. Collected all of the Lunch Boxes, Cult Stashes, Nursery Rhyme Dolls, Charms and Manuscript Pages. Solved every Nursery Rhyme. Petted all of the Deer Heads. Found all of the Mayor Setter Signs and petted the Mayor Setter. Found all of the Weapons for both characters. Found all of the Words of Power. Got all of the Radio and Television collectibles (Koskela Brothers Commercials, Writer's Journey Videos, Echoes, Pat Maine Radio Shows,...), except the ones that are missing.

Mirror's Edge (Xbox 360) - November 11, 2023 - Hard difficulty. 30/30 Runner Bags collected. - REPLAY

Alan Wake II was simply amazing and replaying Mirror's Edge is always fun.

Happy gaming for December!

11/12 Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion [PS5] • 21:18 ⭐⭐⭐⭐
11/28 Twink Tales [itch.io] • 2:37 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
11/30 Assassin's Creed Mirage [PS5] • 34:33 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Crisis Core and AC Mirage were both fine, but, without a doubt, Twink Tales is the best game I've ever played, even if it is a smoldering pile of buggy garbage.

11/8 - Devil May Cry (PS2)
11/20 - Jak II (PS2)
11/24 - Jak 3 (PS2)

None of them were perfect, but Jak 3 was probably the most fun for me.

I beat:

Trepang2
Lego City Undercover
Watch Dogs: Legion
Goldeneye 007: Reloaded
Mass Effect
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Spider-Man 2 PS5
Postal Brain Damaged
Soul Calibur 6
Metal Gear Solid 2
Mass Effect 2: Lair of the Shadow Broker

I got various degrees of enjoyment from all these games. There wasn't a game I outright disliked. I don't even dislike Watch Dogs Legion even if that game felt like I was loosing interest in it at times.

Mass Effect held up very well better than I did when I originally played it. The gameplay at least in the Legendary version was decent enough for me to enjoy the story and the story is pretty good too all though the middle half could've been better.

Metal Gear Solid 2 is a strange one. I don't think it's terrible and the themes of the game are interesting. My big issue is how it scarifices literally everything to tell them. Gameplay and story consistency especially. The story is interesting but not as good as MGS1 and not even the gameplay is either. First person aim trivializes both stealth and bosses where in MGS1, you had to deal with the patrols and wait for openings for bosses to attack them, in MGS2, you enter first person mode, tank hits and keep hitting them. The best parts of the games were the Fatman boss, and some of the more scripted sequences. The exploration is also a downgrade from MGS1 too even if MGS1 wasn't level design masterclass either.

Either way, Novemeber was a good month for me when it came to playing games.

Very middle of the road month in terms of quality.

Nov 2 - Pokken Tournament (Wii U) - 8/10
Nov 23 - Assassin's Creed III: Benedict Arnold DLC (Switch) - 4/10
Nov 24 - Link-a-Pix Color (3DS) - 4/10
Nov 26 - Watermelon Game (PC) - 4/10
Nov 26 - I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator (PC) - 7/10
Nov 26 - Assassin's Creed III: Remastered (PC) - 6/10
Nov 27 - Aperture Desk Job (PC) - 8/10
Nov 27 - Helltaker (PC) - 7/10
Nov 28 - Helltaker - Bonus Chapter: Examtaker (PC) - 6/10
Nov 28 - Assassin's Creed III: The Tyranny of King Washington - The Infamy DLC (Switch) - 5/10
Nov 29 - Pineapple on Pizza (PC) - 7/10
Nov 29 - Assassin's Creed III: The Tyranny of King Washington - The Betrayal DLC (Switch) - 6/10
Nov 29 - Assassin's Creed III: The Tyranny of King Washington - The Redemption DLC (Switch) - 7/10
Nov 29 - Assassin's Creed III: The Tyranny of King Washington DLC (Switch) - 6/10
Nov 30 - DMVR (PC) - 5/10
Nov 30 - Perspective (PC) - 8/10

Worst: Link-a-Pix Color
Best: Pokken Tournament

A few things this month.

Nov 02 - Bendy and the Ink Machine - PC
Nov 03 - The Quarry - PC
Nov 05 - The Consuming Shadow - PC
Nov 06 - Corvid's Night - PC
Nov 08 - Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp - PC
Nov 19 - Pony Island - PC
Nov 22 - A Heart of Butterblue - PC
Nov 26 - An Outcry - PC

I didn't complete anything this month :(

I did put nearly 400 hours into Elite Dangerous though which I still can not believe (shoutout to letstalkaboutdune for the recommendation too btw). Been slowly working at the Parasite Eve Ex Mode in the background here and there too. The Chrysler Building dungeon has been such a chore that I've been hesitating putting effort into it. Just the real last boss to go now though when I can be bothered to do it.

Advance Wars - Game Boy Advance (8/10)

A pretty slow month for me. I didn't game much from mid-October to mid-November. I've been working on Sea of Stars on PS5, Luigi's Mansion on 2DS, and Advance Wars for GBA. I'm hoping to get a few more games done in December - especially after finals this semester.

November was a depressing month of games for me only finished one which is call of shitty of all games.

(Xbox One) Call of Duty Modern Warfare Remastered- 75%

Black mesa is the only game i finished in November, great game overall except for the xen part which is too long and too boring