I own a copy of the Twilight Struggle boardgame and though it mostly sits unplayed, I’ve always admired how it portrays real world history in terms of game mechanics. I was naturally intrigued when GMT Games later published a game about the US War on Terror using some of the same mechanics. This was long after I’ve stopped playing boardgames so I had to wait until this digital version to check it out. I had no illusions about the digital version being actually enjoyable as I know this should really be played against real people. I only really wanted to learn and understand the mechanics and in that I was satisfied enough.

I have a soft spot for the Warhammer 40k turn-based games and this one even covers a more rarely seen faction: the Adeptus Mechanicus of the Imperium of Man. It seems obvious in retrospect how interesting it would be to pit them against the Necrons but it has never occurred to me either. What happens when the Mechanicus, who replace pieces of their flesh with cybernetics, encounters the Necrons who completed the same transition eons ago? This is a squad scale game so you actually are controlling individual Techpriests and their Skitarii soldiers as they explore a Necron tomb world. The upside is that it has enough customization options and novel mechanics to make it interesting. The downside is that it soon gets repetitive and is probably too easy.

This was another free game on Epic that I thought looked pretty and might not take very long to play. It turns out that while you can technically complete the game very quickly if that’s all you want to do, there is plenty of content in it if you want to take your time. Also, while there is no combat and no way of losing, this isn’t a zero-friction game either. There are puzzles and hidden secrets which might take some effort to work out. I don’t really like it all that much but it’s not bad.

Back when I was actively playing nearly every one of the historical Total War games, an entry set in China’s Three Kingdoms era seemed like an obvious no brainer. So when Creative Assembly finally announced it, I was so happy and looked forward to it so much. The problem is that they left it too late but by then I was thoroughly burned out of the series. Even now after having left it alone for years, I’m finding that while it’s quite satisfying to start and struggle through the beginning of a campaign, actually finishing one feels far too daunting for me. I’ve simply played too many of the Total War games over the years and despite the many innovations in this title, in the end it still feels like more of the same.

Once upon a time, I trained as a journalist so news video editing is actually the kind of thing I’m supposed to be able to do. So when this game which puts you in the chair of the editor of a news program came out, I just knew I had to play it. A full playthrough isn’t really supposed to take very long but I agonized over improving my score and rewatched the full broadcasts and the rushes, so I took much longer than necessary. I felt unnecessarily stressed about doing a proper job, was enthralled by the emerging stories of all of the characters and, needless to say, had a great time.

I’ve never played a game by legendary game designer Hideo Kojima so this game being free on Epic and being itself so fascinatingly eccentric, it seemed like the best opportunity to remedy this failing. I’ve still heard enough about Kojima to be skeptical that I’d actually like it and the concepts in it are so ridiculous that surely it couldn’t be coherent. Yet despite myself, I found myself drawn into Kojima’s imagination and impressed by the richness of its game mechanics. There’s still a lot here that I don’t like, such as the excessively long cutscenes, but I have to admit that the guy really is a genius.

I still haven’t played Elden Ring yet as I want to wait to get a better computer before getting around to it. In the meantime I have this sitting in my library unplayed for a while now. It’s one of those Dark Souls clones adapted for 2D. I was interested because of how much I love Dark Souls but I have zero experience with and indeed am terrified by metroidvania-style platforming games. Most people seem to think that this is significantly easier than Dark Souls but I found this far more difficult as I am simply so awful at platforming and had an almost impossible time navigating the map areas that require lots of jumping.