The Blade Itself & Before They Are Hanged

Fantasy author Joe Abercrombie's name has been popping up whenever I've searched for new books to read. I finally decided to check his stuff out: his First Law trilogy is available here in libraries as Finnish translations. I've already read the first two novels.

Chorus

I was impressed by Rockfish Games' strong 2017 debut Everspace, but while it's indeed the studio's first title, I have later learned that the founders Michael Schade and Christian Lohr weren't exactly newbies at making space combat games. Back at their previous company, Fishlabs Entertainment, they had been releasing for good many years a similar game series for mobile called Galaxy on Fire. Fishlabs ran out of money in 2013 and after brief bankruptcy proceedings it was acquired by Koch Media (now Plaion) who placed the studio under their Deep Silver publishing arm. (And Schade and Lohr proceeded to found Rockfish.)

Weird West

In my Prey: Mooncrash post I speculated there was more than family reasons behind Arkane Studios' founder and president Raphaël Colantonio quitting in 2017. Since then, in an interview, he has added that there had been "creative anxiety" involved with delivering big titles, having to make products rather than focusing on other things. Neither did he seem too happy about the Prey name that had been bestowed upon his last project.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Since Crystal Dynamics were busy, after having been tasked -- punished -- by Square Enix to make Marvel's Avengers, was the final Tomb Raider Survivor trilogy game developed mainly by Eidos Montréal instead. They didn't really take any risks and Shadow of the Tomb Raider turned out pretty much what I would've expected had it been made by just Crystal Dynamics. The gameplay felt instantly familiar, even down to keybindings. There are however some differences that I think show the Deus Ex prequel studio was handling the reins in this one.

Demonicon

If I recall right, Demonicon was a pure impulse purchase for me: I saw a deep discount and the logo of the German tabletop RPG, The Dark Eye, which I had encountered before in the Blackguards games. And I suppose my backlog wasn't as lengthy as it is currently. Demonicon didn't turn out to be the worst experience ever but there's just not much of a reason to play it over something else.

Generation Zero

I was already in the process of writing a post how I quit Generation Zero before beating it but then ended up returning to the game to finish its main story (if you can call it that) and see the credits roll. It's definitely not a great game even if it has untapped potential. There have been quite a few post-release updates but I feel they have mostly focused on adding more endgame content, which while nice, is not what the game would really need: having its systems reworked and core problems fixed.

Curse of the Dead Gods

Curse of the Dead Gods, an isometric action roguelike by Passtech Games definitely got overshadowed by Hades. The games were concurrently in early access for a time but Hades released fully 6 months earlier and became a massive hit: not much room to succeed after that. I do wonder though if Curse sold more copies simply because people (like me) wanted more Hades.

Children of Time

I picked Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky from a recommendation on Youtube (what sold me on the novel again already forgotten when I finally got to it). Curiously enough this science fiction book had multiple reservations lined up and it took a while for me to get it from the library. I suppose it having received Arthur C. Clarke Award for best science fiction of the year in 2016 may have something to do with its popularity.

Journey to the Savage Planet

My purchases from Epic's summer sale last year were great deals at the time (largely thanks to that renewing 10€ coupon combining with already discounted prices). However, three of the four titles I bought got within the next 6 months, if not better, maybe still a more beneficial deals: both Ghostrunner and Journey to the Savage Planet were Prime games of a month and Curse of the Dead Gods turned up on the PC Game Pass later.

Ghostrunner

Too bad the name 'bladerunner' had been taken; it would have described Ghostrunner even better than its actual name: a cyberpunk first person katana-action platformer. I wishlisted it immediately upon the first opportunity because it had seemed like a game I would enjoy -- and I did. However, it was less of a power fantasy than I had thought it would be from watching someone else play the game. But I'll get to that in a bit.