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.

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.

Industria

I recall vaguely watching Industria (or INDUSTRIA, as it is stylized in caps) being played. What I remember clearly, though, is that one of the game's few developers from Bleakmill was in chat and said that they had ran out of money and the finished product (funded by the Epic grant apparently) is a third of what they had wanted. I thought that was the end of Industria's story. But then a sequel was announced. I put the first game on my wishlist, Epic shortly after offering it for free.

Atomic Heart

I wonder what is it with Cyprus in particular that makes it a desirable place for Russian game developers to allegedly start operating from, but both Owlcat Games and Mundfish have opened an office there: to hide their nationality that is currently very unpopular in Europe, and maybe to have an easier time with transferring finances with the sanctions and whatnot. I doubt that either company have actually moved an entire studio's worth of personnel to another country -- I think some sort of "façade office" scenario is more likely.

Shadow Warrior 3

While waiting for Atomic Heart to gets its inevitable first post-release patches before starting it, I played through a couple of other titles on the PC game pass. The first one was Shadow Warrior 3, a first person shooter which was released a year ago. It's the third game in the series ever since it was rebooted in 2013, Flying Wild Hog as the developer. (The original Shadow Warrior was released in 1997.)

Half-Life 2

After having bought (and played) Black Mesa, I thought I might as well get Half-Life 2 (or HλLF-LIFE² as it's stylized) and experience first hand how Gordon Freeman's journey ends. The game's second standalone DLC, Episode Two, which was released in 2007, teases another sequel but Valve has not been willing to create one so far. In 2020, they did release a virtual reality game called Half-Life: Alyx (stylized with an upside down lambda as y which I'm unable to reproduce in text) but its events are concurrent at best (though the game does add to Episode Two's ending a bit).

Black Mesa

I have not been interested in Valve's Half-Life games because I knew I wouldn't be able to appreciate the possible innovations they did at the time: I have already played newer games that have done same things better. Half-Life and its sequel would just feel old to me. Despite that however, due to a deep discount last year, I bought Black Mesa (or BLλCK MESA as it's stylized on the cover with the lower case Greek lambda letter) which is a third party remake of the first Half-Life (1998). Originally it was a free mod but later Crowbar Collective got approval from Valve for a commercial release.

Far Cry 6

My Ubisoft game binge continued even further when Ubisoft+ was free for a month again right after I was done with Assassin's Creed Revelations. In addition to Far Cry 6, I was going to use the month to play through AC Valhalla's DLC but they announced the game would be still getting one final story update (which it just got now in December) so I decided to postpone that until next time. Far Cry 6 also took a lot longer to beat than I had anticipated. I did however briefly revisit AC Odyssey as well for the crossover story it got. Turns out there's not much actual crossover on Odyssey's side: Kassandra just has a bit of a holiday trip and prepares to live through the ages with the Staff.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

RAGE 2

I wonder if it was Bethesda/id who saw Mad Max, thinking its engine would be a good fit for RⒶGE 2 (as it's stylized), and approached Avalanche Studios for a collaboration. Or was it vice versa. The credits have more Avalanche's people than id's so I would guess it was mainly their project.

Far Cry New Dawn

Far Cry New Dawn could have included the digit 5 in its title. I have trouble understanding why exactly it is not there. Most often -- if not always -- the reason companies do anything is money, though. Maybe there's no 5 because this way the game seems more like a new title instead of DLC which people generally aren't as keen on buying. Regardless, New Dawn is very much a sequel to Far Cry 5. I'd say it's also a better game, a more even experience even if somewhat smaller in scale -- thus the lower asking price.

Far Cry 5

I was late to Ubisoft's Uplay+ service launch. Playing their games for free in September would've been nicer than paying for a month later on but I thought it would still be worth it since Ubisoft doesn't really make games that I'd see myself replaying after finishing them once. Thus Uplay+ was a good way to knock three Ubisoft titles off my wishlist even though 15€/month is a pretty hefty amount compared to something like the Xbox game pass for PC beta with its 1€ price tag. You do get an access to the complete editions of the games however -- all released DLC is included.

Dying Light

I had chosen to ignore Dying Light for the longest time. It had seemed merely a continuation to Techland's earlier game Dead Island -- just another dull zombie smacker with craftable and constantly breaking weapons. But I kept hearing about how great the game's movement system was and eventually I ended up buying it. With hindsight, I should've continued to ignore it instead.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

The ending of Wolfenstein: The New Order may have seemed like the end for Mr. Blazkowicz too. But while his injuries were grievous indeed, B.J. is back on his feet soon enough to again kill scores of them "white-ass Nazi bastards".

Project: Snowblind

Developed by Crystal Dynamics and released in 2005, Project: Snowblind was evidently meant to be a multiplayer focused Deus Ex title. However, due to Deus Ex: Invisible War's somewhat undesirable reception, Snowblind was then set in its own, yet very similar universe. I don't know if that helped its sales but at least it spared the fans of the first Deus Ex game from another disappointment.

Wolfenstein: The Old Blood

I should've bought Wolfenstein: The Old Blood with The New Order. If I recall correctly, it was shortly after that when Bethesda started limiting the discounts their games get during sales on Steam (and Humble Bundle). Neither do they do those "complete your collection" bundles that give an extra discount for already owning something. 50% off doesn't feel good enough for me and so I waited. And even now, I didn't buy the game directly off Steam.