Games I Finished in 2020

2020 seemed such a promising year for games but now looking back, there was barely anything among new releases that truly got me excited. 2020 was colored by worrying news and delays. And Cyberpunk 2077 then crowned the year by getting released too early and on the now-last-generation consoles, on which the game clearly shouldn't be.

DOOM Eternal

DOOM (2016) was a fun game for one playthrough. I tried replaying it later on but the game felt samey and I quickly uninstalled it. With DOOM Eternal I didn't even get to the end of my first run before I felt I had had enough. It's not that the game is just more Doom; there is enough new stuff to make it feel fresh. The problem I feel is that Eternal has higher skill ceiling and even on mere Hurt Me Plenty difficulty I had to reload a myriad number of times. That tends to be annoying.

Assassin's Quest

In an unexpected turn of events, The Farseer Trilogy improved in its final volume. I wouldn't say Assassin's Quest was good though, just better. And the book definitely doesn't begin as such: I would compare the misery of the experience to watching Logan which I truly hated.

Darksiders Genesis

Fans of the Darksiders series have been speculating how the final Horseman's game would work since his signature weapons are dual pistols. Would the fourth Darksiders title be more of a third-person shooter than a hack and slash game? Or will Strife even get his own game? Not necessarily answering either question, Strife is instead introduced as a playable character in a spin-off prequel Darksiders Genesis.

Wizard's First Rule

Probably because I've watched so much of Brandon Sanderson's stuff, YouTube started recommending me videos by one Daniel Greene who does fantasy book reviews and such. One of Mr. Greene's videos is a "blistering review" of Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind. He also has another discussing why the author is so controversial. Or was -- Terry Goodkind passed away in September.

Deliver Us The Moon

Deliver Us The Moon is a first/third person puzzle adventure game developed by KeokeN Interactive. I would like to call it a walking simulator for the simplicity of its puzzles but that would misrepresent the game since there are action sequences that offer plenty of opportunities to actually fail.

Observation

Microsoft is currently offering three months of Game Pass Ultimate for 1€. Unfortunately I subscribed a day before that deal went live so I only got the previous deal which was one month for the price. But looking at how I've already beaten three games of the five (or six if/when EA Play is included in the service on the 15th) I wanted to play in less than two weeks, one month will be just plenty.

Blindsight

I was browsing internet forums for science fiction book recommendations, for what I should keep an eye out. Blindsight by Peter Watts appeared in few lists. One person described it as like watching Alien for the first time. That definitely piqued my interest but after reading the book, I wouldn't compare it to Alien exactly. It does have a first contact with an extraterrestrial life form, and I suppose it can be a bit creepy, but that's about it. Alien is horror in a futuristic setting whereas Blindsight is hard science fiction -- really hard science fiction.

NEON STRUCT

The other indie immersive sim included in Steam's 0451 sale I later bought was NEON STRUCT (as it's stylized), in the cover art also subtitled Die Augen Der Welt ('the eyes of the world'). It's only a 90 MB download, which is kind of impressive but the small size also means you won't be getting much in terms of assets.

Spirits of Xanadu

Few months back Steam had a little sale titled the 0451 Sale: titles of the immersive sim kind i.e. Deus Ex, BioShock, Dishonored, and the like. I already had all the big names since there are so few of them but the sale included a handful of unknown indie titles as well. They looked kind of suspect but I wishlisted a couple of them regardless to maybe buy them later when they're on sale again. Spirits of Xanadu was one of them.

Assassin's Apprentice & Royal Assassin

Robin Hobb is kind of an obvious pen name though I didn't realize it until my sister pointed it out. I pretty much never guess when an author is using a made up name and when not. Based on the name I also assumed Hobb (Margaret Lindholm Ogden) is a man even though that's not at all clear from just Robin.

Risen

Here's Risen, another title I had hidden on Steam -- a whole trio of Risen games in fact. I thought I might do a full franchise run but apparently whatever Deep Silver bundle the second game came in didn't include its DLC, so that will have to wait until a sale happens.

Tales of the Otori Trilogy

I have had the first volume of Tales of the Otori trilogy for many years but never had sought to read the rest. I guess I hadn't been impressed. Then the second and third part happened to be shelved in library and I borrowed them if only for the sake of closure or something. I also re-read the first one to refresh my memory since it had been so long.

The Darkness II

I hadn't bought a new game in a while -- I've been waiting for great sales and the game pass is now more costly too (although by making a new account you might still get that 1€ month) -- yet I wanted to play something I hadn't before. So I went up digging the pile of hidden games in my Steam library. Out came The Darkness II, which I guess was part of some Humble Bundle I bought years ago. The game was developed by Digital Extremes who are best known for Warframe.

The Name of the Wind

Before starting The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss, one should be aware that the series's completion seems uncertain at this time. Its first volume came out in 2007 and the second was published in 2011 but third book is still on its way. In this year's July, Rothfuss's editor, Betsy Wollheim, wrote that she has never seen a word of book three and she believes the author has not written anything for six years. Her words may have been colored by her frustration but Rothfuss sure has been taking his time.

Foundation's Edge (and about the Foundation series in general)

Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov was the only Foundation book I had read for the longest time. I have read it twice or thrice in fact as it can be found in my parents' bookshelf. Recently I figured I should maybe read the rest of the series.

The Martian & Artemis

I've wanted to see Ridley Scott's film The Martian for a while but I've never spotted it on any streaming service I've had a subscription on. (Finland had the world's third most lacking Netflix selection some time ago and that probably has not improved.) Then I stumbled upon an even better thing: the Andy Weir novel the movie is based on. I also read Weir's later novel, Artemis, right after it.

Elantris

Elantris is the 6th novel Brandon Sanderson wrote and the first one he got published. Sanderson had written 16 novels in total before that in fact, or so I've learned from watching his Youtube videos. Elantris is not his best work, I have to say. Sanderson's beloved magic systems don't come into play until very late and plot twists were kind of predictable, or at least didn't evoke a similar sense of astonishment like in the Mistborn books.

The Day Watch

I wonder why Sergei Lukyanenko co-wrote the second Watch book with Vladimir Vasilyev. I think it's pretty odd to bring another author in all of a sudden. Like why was Vasilyev needed? The novel seemed similar to the first. Also, the English cover of the novel doesn't seem to mention Vasilyev, which is curious. In fact this picture of the Finnish cover I found doesn't include him either even though the print I read with otherwise identical cover has both authors' names on it.

Far Cry 4

I had been wanting to play some sort of action game and Far Cry 4 happened to be on sale. It was less than 5€ when combined with the 100 Uplay points discount (gotta spend those on something since they now expire after 2 years) but I still feel like I should have saved the money instead. My graphics card also got bricked while playing the game but I doubt it was specifically Far Cry 4's fault.

Dark Lover

My local library's fantasy/scifi section has an awful many books from someone going by the name of J.R. Ward. I was curious since I had never heard of the author before. A quick google search revealed it to be one of Jessica Bird Blakemore's pen names. Under her maiden name, Jessica Bird, she writes contemporary romance novels and as J.R. Ward too -- just with a paranormal twist. And more specifically: vampires.

Altered Carbon

Richard Morgan's cyberpunk novel, Altered Carbon, turned out to be about as great as its Netflix adaptation. Or at least the first season of the show was much to my liking: I have not seen the second yet. In my opinion the show is one of the better ones Netflix has produced. I do wonder though how the second season is: the novel and its sequels are somewhat challenging to adapt for television because the characters tend to switch bodies. Claiming two people are the same person is difficult to believe when you don't have access to their thoughts like you do in a book. How well does the continuity work when the main character is played by a completely different actor.

The Lost Fleet

The Lost Fleet is a military science fiction novel series written by John G. Hemry under the pen name Jack Campbell. This one is bit of an unusual book post on the blog as I read the whole series, all six volumes of it, before having a chance to write anything about it. The novels were quick and easy reads: they're your standard 300-page books (in English; slightly more in Finnish) and there's only one viewpoint, that of Captain John "Black Jack" Geary's.

The Night Watch

The back cover of The Night Watch (Ночной Дозор) claimed the book, and the series it's a part of, are more popular in Russia than The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. That might very well be the case -- hell if I know. The Harry Potter series is a good comparison though. Similarly to it, The Night Watch is low/urban fantasy (not to be mistaken with low and high magic) and the relationship characters have with magic and supernatural is the same way sort of relaxed: fear is not the first reaction to magic and even seemingly grievous injuries can be healed and undone.

The Book Was Better -- Or Was It?

Reading a novel before watching its TV/film adaption(s) is the correct order of doing things. Going the other way around I always find it challenging to picture my own visuals of a book's world and characters: seeing first someone else's vision of it and then replacing it is difficult. It's like most of the author's work had already been done and experiencing the story again via reading feels otiose. Comparing my own, already existing mental images to an adaption is more worthwhile.

The Surge 2

As far as video game sequels go, The Surge 2 is a fairly good one. It has the familiar gameplay of the previous title but also introduces new features and improvements. I even liked the game enough to immediately replay it. New game plus mostly offered just bigger numbers though: I had been so thorough on my first playthrough that an alternative final boss armor set was pretty much the only thing I was missing.

Warbreaker

Since Mistborn's world was so bleak and gray, Brandon Sanderson wanted to write something more colorful after it and thus Warbreaker came to be. He also released the novel for free on his website much to his publisher's dismay. The novel's still there though now it's available as multiple webpages rather than a PDF file. Good thing I grabbed the latter when I first heard about it: I think it felt more proper to read something that looked like an actual, printed-on-paper book.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood

Wolfenstein: Youngblood is a peculiar spin-off for the Wolfenstein franchise because it establishes that Germany was pushed out of the United States off-screen before it had a chance to happen in the mainline titles. Then towards the end, the game gets uncertain if things will go that way in Wolfenstein III after all.

A Plague Tale: Innocence

It was again time to knock few games off my wishlist by playing through them on the game pass. The first one was A Plague Tale: Innocence, a third person stealth adventure game from Asobo Studio. They're a French developer whose name I don't remember seeing before but they have been in the business for some time now. Currently they're working on Microsoft Flight Simulator which should increase their renown.

Just Cause 4

Just Cause 4 is a good example how multiple game launchers on PC might lead to half-assed releases. It was one of Epic Games' weekly freebies: finally one that I wanted to check out (to a degree). Just Cause 4 hadn't been well received on Steam so I wasn't expecting much but even having gotten the game for free didn't stop me from feeling disappointed.

Atlas Shrugged

I remember how in 2017 I read in a newspaper that Atlas Shrugged had been translated into Finnish, 60 years after its original publication. I had seen the novel mentioned here and there before, which usually signifies a classic. I thought it was kind of an oddly long wait for such a book to get a translation. Maybe the novel's resurgence after the 2007 financial crisis had something to do with it finally getting a Finnish print: evidently just in 2011 Atlas Shrugged's English editions sold nearly half a million copies which I think is impressive for an old book.

Top 10 + 1 Games of the 2010s

I started compiling a list of my all time favorite video games at some point last year and I came to the realization that apart from isometric roleplaying game classics from the turn of the millennium, the vast majority of the titles on the list were just from the last ten years. And so I decided to elect my top 10 favorite games of the past decade by cutting down the list a bit.

Games I Finished in 2019

In 2019 I beat about the same number of games as in 2018 but I paid for them only about half as much. That is largely thanks to the various subscription services now available. They're great value if you want to play a game just once. Great ones I still prefer to own outside a subscription though. Being able to play games for so cheap has also made normal prices seem really expensive to me. A game's discount now needs to be even deeper before I buy it.

Blackguards 2

Years ago in my Blackguards post I said wasn't going to buy Blackguards 2 but then it was on sale on GOG for next to nothing at the end of last year and I thought I might as well buy it after all. Although, had I waited just one more day, I could've played it on Origin Access for completely free.

The Surge

Here's another of them methodical third person action roleplaying games. I actually played The Surge a bit last fall already during my second month of Game Pass but then ragequit and uninstalled after dying and dropping a considerable amount of scrap which is the game's main resource. I had just spawned the first boss who appears between you and the level's medbay which is your respawn point. I thought there was no way to get to the scrap in time with how I would need to beat the boss first. I now know it would've in fact been quite simple to go around, although I don't remember if I had unlocked a particular shortcut then.

Darksiders III

Vigil Games' founder David Adams moved with most of the studio's people to hastily established Crytek USA when THQ went bankrupt in 2012. Adam quit soon after however, and founded Gunfire Games with many of Crytek USA's leads as staff. THQ's Darksiders IP was bought by Nordic Games -- now THQ Nordic -- who hired Gunfire to develop Deathinitive Edition of the second game and then finally Darksiders III. Thus the franchise continues to live on with the people who created it. THQ Nordic also acquired Gunfire Games in last year's August, pretty much ensuring the fourth game will come from the same people as well.