Tiny Tina's Wonderlands

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is a Borderlands series spin-off, kind of a sequel to the Borderlands 2 DLC, Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep (which has been later released as a standalone game as well). Tiny Tina is again the bunker master for a game of Bunkers & Badasses, the Borderlands equivalent to Dungeons & Dragons. My impression is that Wonderlands was well received but its poor post-release support and monotone endgame soured its repute. The publisher 2K's recent EULA changes have also caused many to leave negative reviews on all of their games on Steam.

Outward

For the the longest time I was undecided if I really wanted to play Outward or not. It is a third person fantasy action roleplaying game that emphasizes survival mechanics, preparation, and learning by trial and error. Would it actually be fun to play or would all the management get tiresome? Since the game's release in 2019, there have been quite a few mods made for it; you no longer have to play strictly as the developer, Nine Dots Studio, intended. Thus I ended up eventually picking the game up.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (1928 – 1982) was first translated into Finnish in 1989 by Kari Nenonen in the wake of Blade Runner (1982), the film that is based on the novel. The translation got titled Palkkionmetsästäjä ("bounty hunter") and also had 'Blade Runner' on the cover like many later English printings of the novel -- impossible to make the connection between the book and the film just on their names. A couple of years ago, in 2022, there was a second Finnish translation by J. Pekka Mäkelä, instead titled after the original novel name: Uneksivatko androidit sähkölampaista?

Terminal World

Terminal World is one of Alastair Reynolds's standalone novels. Its Finnish title, Pääteasema, discarded the world part and is instead the (compound) word for terminal station. It gives off a somewhat different meaning but I suppose it can be interpreted in a more figurative way that aligns with the original too. But I definitely took it in the former and I think that threw me off a bit.

Elysium Fire & Machine Vendetta

Elysium Fire continues Prefect Dreyfus Emergencies in Alastair Reynolds's Revelation Space setting -- and Machine Vendetta ends them, for the time being, at least. The expected Melding Plague didn't show up yet so I'm thinking Reynolds might still visit the Panoply's continuing duty to defend democracy in the Glitter Band, even if Tom Dreyfus was implied to have exited stage left. But who knows.

Thymesia

Thymesia is one of the now-many third person soulslike action RPGs. It's from a small Taiwanese developer OverBorder Studio and turned out to have even lower production values than I had expected -- the game features no voiced dialogue in any language. However, even if modest in its scope, Thymesia was reasonably entertaining, its gameplay feel solid enough for a good time.

Eversion

For whatever reason, Eversion by Alastair Reynolds was shelved among thriller/suspense books instead of the usual scifi I'd expect the author's novels to be found at. I'd say scifi section would've been perfectly fine in this case too.

Lichdom: Battlemage

Every now and then, some company makes one of these spell shooters. I reckon they were more common back in the simpler days, someone taking one of the shooter game engines and going: "What if instead of guns, you'd have magic?" The Wheel of Time (1999) coming up eventually on my backlog is perhaps one of such, although it used an existing IP. A more recent example would be Immortals of Aveum (2023). This post's topic, Lichdom: Battlemage by Xaviant Games, is from 2014.

Poseidon's Wake

Poseidon's Wake is the third and (currently) the final volume in Alastair Reynolds's Poseidon's Children series. There's another time skip forward, different members of the Akinya family taking the spotlight. The novel has interesting details and numerous story points to continue from but the plot drags in parts, the ending is unnecessary and forced, and character relations are painful to witness -- the book reminded me a lot of the author's 10 years older novel, Pushing Ice.

The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition

The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition is largely just a bundling of the base game and its two story DLCs -- for which I bought it -- by the game's publisher, Private Division. The original developer, Obsidian Entertainment, had very little to do with it; the extra work there is, was done by Virtuos Games instead.