Come see all the games, more games than one can play. I put some of them in my special book, thinking of days distant with hours unturned.
In this episode, nineteen more games I have not played are added to the Crashbook.
147/ Ravenlok
Ravenlok, an action-packed fable from Cococucumber, is a fairytale reimagining of a kingdom troubled by an evil queen and a young girl’s destiny to fulfill a dangerous prophecy.
Crash notes: Looks a little bit the Lewis Caroll’s classic tale Alice in Voxeland.
Windows, XBox | Epic Link | Unreleased
148/ TimeOut
In a city where the lives of humans are subjected to a time based currency system, you play the role of a hard up detective who goes on the hunt for a seller of fake time.
Crash notes: Student project, takes inspiration from the movie In Time. Love the look of the scrolling backgrounds.
Windows, Mac, Linux | Itch Link | Released Apr 2020
149/ Old World
Old World is a revolutionary new historical strategy game where you lead your dynasty over generations of rule against rival kings and queens. Wage massive wars, manage your court, and build a dynasty — or watch your empire crumble to dust. What legacy will you leave behind?
Crash notes: The next game from Soren Johnson’s studio.
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Released May 2022
150/ Hollowbody
A tech-noir survival horror short story, set in the urban decay of a long abandoned British city.
Crash notes: Kickstarter for this project is closing today (at time of writing, Hollowbody has raised £25k of £15k goal).
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
151/ Rift of the Necrodancer
The NecroDancer’s back in a brand new rhythm game spinoff! Help Cadence navigate the modern world while repairing the rifts that have torn her life apart. Do rhythmic battle via rift mode, minigames, and boss battles! All to the beat of a brand new soundtrack from Danny Baranowsky & friends.
Crash notes: This is a way different game to Crypt of the Necrodancer.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
152/ Songs of Glimmerwick
Become immersed in a musical woodland fantasy world where casting a spell is as easy as playing a song. Attend classes, grow the university garden, make friends with classmates and townsfolk, and explore the island’s many oddities and mysteries in this story-driven witch academy RPG.
Crash notes: From the team that brought you Eastshade.
Windows | Steam Link | Unreleased
153/ Taiji
Solve puzzle panels and uncover the meaning of the symbols within. Explore a dense world where secrets are hidden in plain sight.
Crash notes: Channelling The Witness; Taiji has been in the works for many years.
Windows | Steam Link | Just Released
154/ Filcher
Filcher is a first-person 2.5D noir stealth game. As Sporey the master thief, break into guarded buildings to steal from the wealthy and corrupt, using only your senses, your wits, and a handful of tools and gadgets.
Crash notes: Graphics are not stellar, but the gameplay is much Thief.
Windows | Steam Link | Sep 2021
155/ KEEK
KEEK is a pixel 2D platformer that you could use a special force to change the dimension of objects. Overcome obstacles, disable traps, collect items and face the final challenge.
Crash notes: This just looks appealing to me. And also free.
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Aug 2022
156/ The Lifetime
After falling through a void for an entire lifetime, you land in a mysterious underground world, with a mask you can’t remove. All you’re told is that you need to collect time so you can return to your former life back up on the surface. But time moves in mysterious ways down here…
Crash notes: I don’t think the precis tells you enough about the game so I’m going to crib a bit from the “About” section further down the page: “The game is level-based beat-the-clock gameplay, but with a unique time-collection mechanic: the key twist is that at the end of each level, any time left over is added to the next. So you can get creative about finding the best order to tackle the non-linear levels in and accumulate gameplay-time across the arc of the game!”
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Unreleased
157/ Beacon Pines
Beacon Pines is a cute and creepy adventure set within a mysterious book. Sneak out late, make new friends, uncover hidden truths, and collect words that will change the course of fate!
Crash notes: Not really sure what to make of “cute” and “creepy” but the production values are impressive, so into the Crashbook is goes.
Windows | Steam Link | Just Released
158/ Foretales
Decide the fate of the world in this ingenious story-driven card game. Foretales offers a unique take on the adventure genre, with a multitude of playstyles and story paths through which you can save the world… or bring about its end.
Crash notes: Reviews seem to indicate this is not a typical deckbuilder but a resource management game with narrative.
Windows | Steam Link | Just Released
159/ To the Stars
Explore a strange galaxy, recruit funky aliens and discover weird worlds! Fight off hostile warships in exciting and easy-to-understand space combat! Most importantly, give your flock of gullible tourists the space tour of a lifetime…
Crash notes: A light-hearted Infinite Space/Out There type, maybe?
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Unreleased
160/ Wilderplace
You are a shaman tasked with bringing balance to the once-idyllic Divine Garden. Explore the maze-like environment, harness magical artifacts, and uncover mysteries as you wrangle restless spirits and evade dangerous intruders.
Crash notes: Love the minimal look of this. The summary is not great at explaining what you do but main feature is “unique turn-based puzzle gameplay where you help rather than fight”.
Windows, Mac | Steam Link | Just Released
161/ HYPER DEMON
HYPER DEMON is an FPS like no other. a pearl of lightning. a dream from the future. a drop of poison. a swan song. The faster you slay demons, the harder the game and the higher your score. There is an end. Will it see you?
Crash notes: Devil Daggers 2.
Windows | Steam Link | Just Released
162/ LakeSide
Build and manage a quiet town by the lake or expand it into a picturesque city state in this side-scrolling city builder featuring hybrid mechanics. Construct marvelous buildings, epic wonders and become the envy of the known world!
Crash notes: A city builder but, unusually, in 2D. Looks lovely.
Windows | Steam Link | Early Access
163/ Folds of a Separation
Folds of a Separation is a short rumination on a state’s control over bodies and the grief that stems from carceral violence. It has been translated to English and adapted from the third and fifth canto of an apocryphal protest song, often attributed to the Gujarati diarist and poet, Mir UmarHassan.
Crash notes: Latest from Studio Oleomingus. PWYW.
Windows, Mac, Linux | Itch Link | Just Released
164/ The Matriarch
A deadly hide & seek online party game where everyone is an imposter.
Crash notes: An inversion of Mafia/Werewolf where all of the characters are trying to blend in while plotting their escape – except for one (“The Matriarch”) who is trying to eliminate the others. Reviews suggest it needs work.
Windows | Steam Link | Just Released
165/ Bobo the Cat
In this Metroidvania structured Jump’n’Run you will learn abilitys , like jumping on enemys , melee attacks, ranged attacks, cat senses and much more.
Crash notes: Rough around the edges platformer but looks like it has variety? Free.
Windows | Itch Link | Just Released
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Taiji is great and I’ll be trying Beacon Pines soonish on Switch, right after we get bored of playing Stardew Valley with my wife.
Which can take a few days/weeks/years.
Bobo the Cat has two things going for it: the completely offbeat sequence of powerup unlocks (“jump” is the fourth or fifth one) and the almost IWBTG-like precision it demands from your platforming.
Ah, Stardew Valley, one of those titles that sounded exciting to me in the beginning but then I lost my son and wife to it and I was like noooo come back.
Taiji is lined up already, locked and loaded. I mean bought.
Thanks also for the additional info on Bobo, Zara, although the precision jumping is probably what disqualifies me from even attempting it…
Some interesting titles here, I look forward to playing some of them. The last games I played or I’m still playing that I liked are: God of War the pc port from the 2018 release, surprisingly good, I guess Sony keep their games locked for a reason, but is good to finally play on PC, some performance issues, but in general was a perfect port, managed to run almost all features in max and I played on mouse and keyboard and worked pretty well too, but I like to play on joystick too, no doubt it gives more comfort, but on the same time you have less freedom to control the camera than with a mouse, so is a choice to make. Batman Arkham Knight is very difficult to play with mouse and keyboard for example, I guess I will try with a joystick some day. Ghostwire Tokyo I already talked about on the site some months ago and I still recommend it, very good, also the same creator of Resident Evil and Evil Within, Evil Within 2, both games that I highly recommend, and the second is a more “open world” experience so to speak and manage well the survival experience in this open ambient with horror, which Ghostwire Tokyo level up this open world mode, but equilibrates the horror and tension, which made sense, because I guess it would be too much stressful for a game that wants you to play around like a sandbox game, so if you don’t like horror, don’t worry, the horror is more thematically, the experience is surprisingly comfy, there is tension of course, but you can play without much worry most of the time and have some fun exploring this ghost Tokyo or maybe I’m just used to the horror genre and someone will really feel afraid and stressed all the time, which is good too. Just finished the first and second Resident Evil for the PSOne in the emulator, I will finish the third some day. Also planning to complete the Silent Hill series, still in the third title. Resident Evil 8, another horror and triple A game, pretty god, I liked, there is good equilibrium too between horror and action, no open world here, sometimes seems almost a Rail Shooter, but the game design fit perfectly, a great experience and still give you a feeling of a more open ambient, where you explore around this place, which very well done, it really makes you immerse in this dark fairy tale with mold zumbis. Death Stranding I’m still playing, I had to reset the game from the start so I don’t completed yet, just saying that is a Kojima’s game, says everything at least for me, every bad “critic” I have from many triple A games, Kojima manages to conquer, amazing gaming experience, also I played almost obsessively Metal Gear 5, but offline, I’m planning to play again from the start and have this online experience too, someday who knows, also Death Stranding can be played offline, but the games shines while connected. Tried to complete the first Dark Souls, got pretty far, but got angry again, I’m still trying to finish this damn thing, I admit it is very addicting when you got the grip and pace of the game, which is good. Still have to play Elden Ring, I started to play, but I gave up after the first insanely strong enemy with a horse in the beginning, I know I don’t have to face it, but I’m a stubborn bastard. I’m looking forward for Diablo 4, but I still have to finish Diablo 2 and 3. Some friends of mine get addicted to Diablo Immortal on mobile, all grown ups with kids, so I’m guessing Blizzard hit the jackpot, despite all the polemics on their paying system overlapping the actual gaming, that is free-to-play, it seems it would be too pay-to-win, but it appears some people spend thousands and because of randomness of their economy, it actually can give almost nothing good enough depending on the luck. The list of games that I’m playing or playing every now and then, are almost infinite too, also want to play Stardew Valley, but I always forget, I really like the Harvest Moon franchise and this style of game to chill sometimes, so that’s it for now. I was feeling like a bitter old man, who doesn’t like to play videogames and complains all the time to the new generation, despite feeling and being very young @_@, so there it is, full of good and top-notch games. I don’t know if you already mentioned it, but Alisa seems like a good game with the same vibe of the first Resident Evil and Psone games that I have in my library of games, but still didn’t play.
Thank you for all your recommendations, Pedro. I doubt I have the space for anything open wordly right now. I love the feeling of “being somewhere” that open worlds conjure but I hate that they’re so selfish about your time. Of course, if they weren’t long they probably wouldn’t have that feeling of being there…