Conan Exiles (Enhanced)

I don't generally yearn for the resource-gathering involving gameplay of open world survival crafting games but Conan Exiles eventually got onto my wishlist because I wanted to play a game set in the Hyborian Age created by Robert E. Howard. There are not many of those around. Conan Exiles doesn't provide a narrative experience: its focus is on online multiplayer sandbox on persistent servers. But it does have the setting's lore and in many ways absolutely nails the atmosphere. Conan Exiles can be played solo and smaller scale co-op, too. In solo you will miss out on the good and bad things that come with random players, as well as the possible issues that would come from playing a game that runs on someone else's computer you have no control over.

Exit Strategy

The Murderbot Diaries continue with Exit Strategy. I don't have a lot say about it; it's quite like the previous ones. The Murderbot reunites with characters of the first novella and continues its fight against the evil corporation(s).

The Citadel of the Autarch

Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun ends with The Citadel of the Autarch. Or least does so for me because The Urth of the New Sun is not available in libraries here -- for some reason it hasn't gotten a Finnish translation unlike the previous four books. But the story does end in some manner in Citadel with our protagonist Severian becoming the Autarch like he has mentioned to happen as he's been telling the story.

Luna Abyss

My latest Game Pass plans went kind of belly up for a couple of reasons and it was looking like I was beating only one title for the 13€/month the service is currently (on PC). That's not an amazing value proposition for a singular game you even lose access to. But then, like a week before its release, Luna Abyss was announced to be on Game Pass on day one and I got more worth out of my month.

Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

Yet another video game took me to the New England region of North America, this time to the end of the 17th century. Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden is a third person action RPG from Don't Nod. The game is quite similar to the studio's 6 years older title Vampyr. The games are even set in the same universe, albeit the actual connections are almost nonexistent: one collectible note confirming the fact, one piece of gear called "Red Goddess" -- and maybe one of the protagonists saying once: "It's locked, alright", like Dr. Jonathan Reid in Vampyr stated every damn time upon encountering a locked door.

The Pathless

The Pathless is yet another title published by Annapurna Interactive with these simplified, stylized visuals. This one was developed by Giant Squid who are also known for Abzû and last year's Sword of the Sea. The studio was founded by a few former people of Thatgamecompany, known for Flow and the 2012 hit Journey.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong

I reckon video games utilizing the Vampire: The Masquerade and the other long-name World of Darkness RPG licenses should emphasize the franchise title on their cover art less and maybe otherwise, too, mention that the first part is just the licensed IP, the actual name of the video game being at the end. It annoys me quite a bit when at least half the comments I read anywhere are by tourists who think VTM is originally a video game franchise born with VTM Bloodlines and keep repeating the full title litany every time (even developers themselves in marketing videos)  -- or giving up halfway through and calling any of the video games just Vampire: (The) Masquerade (or simply Vampire) which to someone in the know looks like they're talking about the tabletop RPG.

Shadow Captain

Shadow Captain is the second book in Alastair Reynolds's Revenger trilogy. I didn't find is as entertaining as the first novel because the plot early on promises a predictable and very annoying predicament and then moves toward it ever so slowly. I had hard time resisting the urge to skip to a part where the annoyance had been resolved.

Dungeon Lords - Steam Edition

Last year when playing Outward, I started reminiscing about Dungeon Lords: another third person action RPG -- little known and one of extremely janky nature. The game was originally released in 2005 with a lot of stuff missing. In 2006, when I beat it, the game was rereleased as more complete Dungeon Lords Collector's Edition. After the game's publisher Dreamcatcher Interactive's remains were acquired by Nordic Games (now THQ Nordic), the game got yet another rerelease: Dungeon Lords MMXII (2012). And finally, in 2015, the game's latest version Dungeon Lords Steam Edition came out.

The Peace War

The Peace War by Vernor Vinge is a science fiction novel in which wars on Earth are over. A faction called Peace Authority has taken over the world thanks to a device called Bobbler that creates spherical, mirror-surfaced force fields that are seemingly affected only by gravity. By trapping military units, missiles in the air, even whole cities, permanently in bobbles, the Peace Authority is able to defeat everyone opposing them.