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.

Routine

Routine (stylized in caps as ROUTINE) is a first person (light-)survival horror game first announced all the way back in 2012 at Gamescom. The project disappeared into development hell until finally resurfacing a decade later to the surprise of those who had been aware of the game (which hadn't included me). The wait probably wasn't worth it and even without it, Routine hasn't much meat to it. The game released few days before my latest Game Pass month was up -- which was plenty of time to beat, and 100%, the around 7-hour experience.

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers

Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a third person soulslike action roleplaying game developed by Leenzee. The game's Chinese name is 明末：渊虚之羽 (Míngmò: Yuānxū Zhī Yǔ) which Google translates to something along the lines of "Late Ming Era: Feathers of the Abyss". The first part certainly wouldn't have sounded good in English. 'Wuchang' comes from the (silent) protagonist's name: Bai Wuchang.

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.

Avowed

Avowed is the first game from Obsidian Entertainment under Microsoft that was of interest to me -- Grounded and Pentiment were not that. I expected the same kind of mediocrity The Outer Worlds was made of and pretty much got that. Avowed is a professional production that feels smooth and fun to play but at the same time is limited in scope and ultimately a shallow experience.

Eternal Strands

Eternal Strands is a third person action-adventure game developed by Yellow Brick Games who are led by Mike Laidlaw of BioWare fame. The game looked akin to Immortals Fenyx Rising: colorful, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild -inspired fun, with maybe a touch of Shadow of the Colossus. However, it didn't turn out to be nearly as competent. There were few amazing moments but overall Strands is a repetitive experience that more than overstays its welcome.

Lords of the Fallen (2023)

The 2023 reboot of Lords of the Fallen dropped its definite article eventually and instead one has to use the release year to distinguish the titles -- which might actually be clearer. The developer studio CI Games had founded to make the game also ended up being called Hexworks instead of the initially announced 'Defiant Games' for whatever reason.

Still Wakes the Deep

Ah, dammit, here we go again: yet another first person horror walking simulator with a cool title but not much else to give. Such a great name, though -- Still Wakes the Deep. It evokes the same feelings as the names of the couple of Vernor Vinge's novels I've read, that use of 'deep' as a noun. I also love how one can read the title in two ways: the deep waking yet again or the deep waking unmoving. In the game you can find a poem where title seems to have originated from -- unknown if it was written for the game or if it existed before the fact.

Jusant

Game Pass's 1€ trial returned in a nerfed manner: being only 2 weeks in length. Evidently that's not long enough for me to beat 2 short games and 1 bigger one (in a completionist style). I will have to return to finish the latter, Gotham Knights, some other time.