Hogwarts Legacy

I read the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling once back in the day when they were coming out hot off the press. Beyond that I have by happenstance watched maybe one of the film adaptations but otherwise that's where my following of the Wizarding World stopped. In 2023, Hogwarts Legacy by Avalanche Software (not to be confused with the Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios) provided an entirely new addition to the universe in the form of a third person action roleplaying game. It looked cool enough to play and was just recently added onto PC Game Pass.

Ghostrunner 2

At its core, Ghostrunner 2 provides largely the same first person action-platformer experience as the first game. However, about every aspect was touched in some way and these changes seem to have been divisive among the player base. Some sizeable additions are the game being bigger, having few large non-linear maps, and introducing a motorcycle.

Strayed Lights

I was sold on Strayed Lights for the same reason as Batora: Lost Haven -- shiny colors. Gameplay had seemed competent enough but once again it was proven that visuals alone won't carry a game. But pretty Strayed Lights is. There's again a duality of colors -- blue and orange -- but purple also makes an appearance as the color of corruption as is tradition.

The Wheel of Time

My first encounter with The Wheel of Time, a 1999 first person spell shooter by now-defunct Legend Entertainment, was an article in some gaming magazine around the time of the game's release: I remember the article appreciating the ceiling architecture in the game. The book series is awesome but I had never gotten to play this oddball of an adaptation. It was not being sold anywhere for years but GOG managed to get it on their store in 2022 and I bought it last year, solely due to the license: I doubted a shooter from that era would be very satisfying gameplay-wise now.

Lust from Beyond

My backlog coincidentally offering next a fitting game for Halloween, it was time to play Lust from Beyond. I wasn't expecting a great experience: I bought the game mostly because I was already invested in the series. On the way to Beyond's release, Movie Games Lunarium put out two shorter, prelude type of deals: Lust from Beyond: Prologue and Lust from Beyond: Scarlet. (Despite being free, they both count towards your Steam achievement stats, curiously enough.)

Necromunda: Hired Gun

Necromunda is one of the spinoff games from Games Workshop's Warhammer 40,000 miniature wargame. Likewise played with miniatures, Necromunda is about small scale skirmishes between the gangs of the titular hive city/world that produces weapons and such for the Imperium's vast military forces. As a first person shooter, Necromunda: Hired Gun is a video game adaptation more of the Necromunda (sub-)setting than the actual tabletop game.

Steelrising

Almost exactly a year before Lies of P, there was Steelrising. In addition to both games being third person soulslike action RPGs, their settings are coincidentally very similar as well. Steelrising takes place in alternate Paris during the French Revolution, and like in Lies of P later, automats roam the streets, killing everyone.

Batora: Lost Haven

I suppose Batora: Lost Haven by Stormind Games had looked enough like Darksiders Genesis for me to buy it: a stylized top-down twin-stick hack and slash shooter. Visually the game didn't disappoint; I really liked the purple-orange dual color theme. Gameplay turned out to be pretty basic, however, and mechanics rather shallow. But the game's biggest problem is its writing.

The Entropy Centre

It had been a while since I last played an entirely new (for me) first person puzzle-platformer. While I had played a few in the past and we're not exactly lacking in these chamber-based Portal-without-portals games, they don't always look entertaining enough. The Entropy Centre by Stubby Games did, however. Its gimmick is rewinding objects backwards in time.

En Garde!

En Garde! (with an exclamation mark) had looked like one of the rare few gaming highlights of otherwise unexciting 2023 to me: a vibrant and lighthearted swashbuckler game. The actual experience turned out to be quite frustrating now that I got to actually play it. That was probably in part due to lack of skill when going for all achievements but I think that certain mechanics can be rage-inducing, even when trying to get through the game casually.