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Herdling (PC) by dkirschner (Jan 19th, 2026 at 19:45:09) |
I really enjoyed Okomotive's first game, Far: Lone Sails, but then really disliked the sequel, Changing Tides. So I decided to give this one a chance. I wasn't sure based on the reviews, but I saw a lot of them saying that it was more like Lone Sails than Changing Tides. Turns out to be true. Herdling is another atmospheric game about a journey that revolves around one core mechanic, herding creatures that look kind of like yaks. You are a kid and you find some kind of magical herding stick that lets you control where the yak-things go, and then for whatever reason, you start herding the yak-things toward a distant, snowy mountain.
The herding mechanic is simple. You press RT to command the yak-things to move ahead, and the direction they move is based on where you are in relation to the herd. They move 180 degrees in front of where you are facing (so straight ahead). That means if you want the herd to go left, you need to move behind them to the right, and vice versa. That's pretty much it. You will guide them through various levels and environments, avoid obstacles, solve the occasional easy puzzle, and proceed toward the mountain.
On the way, you find and tame more of the creatures. I really liked doing this because the game encourages building a connection with each one, firstly, because you can name them. So of course I named them after the dog we are fostering (Noodle), our cats (Baby and Teddy), Sasha's mom's dogs, my mom's cat, my stepmom's cat, and some of our friends' pets. It turns out that the creatures can be killed, so there was a Teddy II in my herd (and the ghost, it turns out, of original Teddy, stuck around). You can feed them, clean them, pet them, play fetch with them, and adorn their antlers with trinkets. It's all very cute.
The "bad guys" are these fierce owl creatures that are feared on the mountain (according to the cave art), and they occasionally harass your herd. Your herd can die from owls, falling off cliffs, falling into chasms, and probably a couple more ways. Teddy is the only one of mine who died, so I feel like a pretty successful herder.
The story is...? Maybe examining the wall art would reveal more, but it's one of those wordless journeys. You take the herd to the mountain and...everyone lives happily ever after? You fulfill the prophecy? The herd lives to graze another season? Who knows. There's not much of a climax, but the moment-to-moment gameplay was thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable. Not a necessary game to play, even if you are into these kinds of experiences, but managing the herd was calming. Oh, and "stampeding" is fun and can put you in a flow state. The game breaks out into these wide open spaces where the herd can run. Move them through fields of blue flowers and they can stampede, going really fast, so finding the winding paths through bunches of blue flowers, hearing the music swell, watching the pretty landscapes go past, was engrossing.
I saw that their next game is a pinball deckbuilding roguelite. Iiiiiinteresting!
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Keeper (PC) by dkirschner (Jan 18th, 2026 at 00:56:35) |
This is the latest Double Fine game. I was expecting a creative, artistic, narrative game. I got creative and artistic, but not so much narrative. Turns out that's fine. The game's got plenty of charm from the detailed artwork.
You play as a...stay with me here...lighthouse. Or rather, you are the light (and you happen to be atop a lighthouse). The game starts out slowly. The lighthouse is wobbly and all it can do is crawl around and shine a light. You basically press forward until you encounter an obstacle, shine the light to get past it, and continue pressing forward. Eventually, you get some simple puzzles, and finally, you reach the end of the lighthouse part and the game starts to get more fun.
I forget what happens, but your lighthouse is destroyed and the light ends up on a boat. The levels open up, the puzzles get more complicated, and movement is faster and smoother. I thoroughly enjoyed being a boat. I enjoyed the next metamorphosis even more. Then the final one is another "press forward" situation, but that's the end of the game, so it's okay. At the end (the last two transformations), you get a neat boss fight and some seriously trippy levels. Keeper is pretty to look at. Oh, and you also have a couple bird companions because...I guess...a light would be pretty boring on its own?
I'd recommend for something artistic and chill. It gets better as it goes on, and the third (of four) transformations was my favorite. I'd probably say three, two, four, one. Wonder what the Double Fine folks will cook up next!
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I Am Your Beast (PC) by dkirschner (Jan 15th, 2026 at 16:19:04) |
Short and sweet. Hotline Miami / Superhot vibes. Cool narrative presentation with a good story and solid voice acting. Levels are either time-based (complete objectives as fast as possible) or wave-based (survive waves of enemies). In both, you get more points for skill-shots and creative kills (e.g., shooting hornets' nests down on top of enemies, getting multi-kills with claymore mines, etc.). More points = higher rank.
There are also two challenges in every level, such as "kill x enemies with hornets nests/throwing knives/explosive barrels/etc.", "melee only", "don't pick up any health", and so on. Those were fun to aim for during replays, which you will have to do because the game gatekeeps levels from time to time (get A rank on x number of levels, get S rank on one level, complete x challenges, etc.).
It's not terribly deep, but it does what it does well. The whole thing took me under 3.5 hours. I saw there are additional challenge levels, DLC with story levels, and some super hard (apparently) levels that the game warns you, "you may not be able to beat a single level." My Game Pass month is almost over (and it was completely derailed!), but if I had time, I would try the story DLC.
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Great God Grove (PC) by dkirschner (Jan 12th, 2026 at 16:10:32) |
Finished this over the weekend. It's a cute, charming little narrative game with a clever gimmick that doesn't get overused or used to its full potential. In Great God Grove, you play as a character who needs to solve the problems of various gods and denizens in the titular great god grove. You see, a rift has opened in the sky, and it requires all the gods to work together to close it. But they are all angry and disharmonious because the newest god has gone and manipulated them all, turning them against one another and making them cause problems.
So, you get this megaphone that can suck up dialogue, and then you can shoot the dialogue at characters, causing reactions if it makes sense. For example, one character might be telling you all the great things about his girlfriend. You suck up his words, find the girlfriend, who tells you that she wishes her boyfriend would tell her how he feels about her. Then you shoot his words at her ("I love her so much, she's so great"), and she goes "Aww," and they can be emotionally vulnerable with each other (or whatever).
It's a clever little word game, but in practice it ends up being easy and straightforward. There are only so many sentences that can be sucked up, you can only hold five at a time anyway, and there are only so many situations in which it makes sense to use them. I did look up solutions in a walkthrough a few times really early on, but once I got the hang of the game and its logic, I never used one again. It's about identifying what dialogue would make sense being spoken to other characters, finding that dialogue, and then using your megaphone to blast it to the other characters. Levels are small enough that this is not hard.
That's basically it. It's really simple. There are some "optional" interactions, as you can play around and see what sentences will have what effects on what characters, but you'll usually have solutions figured out quickly. It's got charm and it's kind of funny, but I'd say has more of a silly vibe that often makes it cross over into childish territory. As the end approaches though, it begins sharing poignant lessons regarding its themes, and I appreciated it a bit more. One other thing to mention is its treatment of gender, which is really diverse. That stood out to me: masculine women together with feminine men, pronouns that don't match gender performance, gay couples, humans and gods crushing on each other, characters who you totally misgender because they look ambiguous. It was a little confusing at first, but once I realized that the game was playing with gender constructs, I liked that aspect.
Wouldn't really recommend unless you want a one-trick pony silly narrative game. I wouldn't have missed it had I not played, but it was good for a few evenings worth of entertainment.
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1000xRESIST (PC) by dkirschner (Jan 4th, 2026 at 10:23:28) |
Great sci-fi story that touches on real-world topics like protest, the experiences of immigrant families, and intergenerational trauma. It's really creative and artistic, with excellent writing (though the voice acting leaves something to be desired). You play (first) as the new "Watcher" (people are assigned functions: Watcher, Healer, Knower, etc.). Watcher observes things and enters into "communion" with other people, where they share their memories with Watcher. This helps Watcher understand them. As a new Watcher, you don't know a whole lot, so by communing with others, you learn about the history of this odd society, how it came to be, its religious belief, its hierarchy, and the dangers it faces. Too much to attempt to summarize here, and that would ruin the joy of discovering how this society operates.
But, you aren't just communing with others to learn. You are communing with others because people have secrets, notably the "Allmother" (a god-like figure revered in society). The Allmother may not be exactly how she is portrayed, and you end up trying to get to the bottom of who she is and the implications of that for everyone else. Turns out she has a history...A major event occurs halfway through the game that moves the story forward in time and changes who you play as, and makes you question what you had done so far and your goals going forward. Very cool.
That's basically the game! It's purely narrative in 3d environments, so you'll run around talking to people. Goals are clear and direct you from task to task. The story moves along at a good pace. The one thing I didn't like is that navigating "The Orchard" (the main area wherein the game takes place) is difficult. You get a kind of radar showing where other characters are, and you get a map, but they aren't terribly effective, particularly for helping you navigate the weaving hallways and ramps. There is a particular spot, a center of a garden, that I always had trouble finding. I could see the icon on the radar of whatever character I was meeting there, and I could often see them through trees, but it would take me a while to find the correct path!
In sum, I really enjoyed the story here and definitely recommend if you want a creatively presented, unique, and complex narrative. The map really isn't that big a deal, the voice acting is fine, and it can be a bit slow, but the story was so engaging and thought-provoking that I even stayed up one night till 2am playing. I usually start falling asleep around 11, so that's high praise!
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2316 registered gamers and 3339 games. 7873 GameLogs with 13360 journal entries. 5123 games are currently being played.
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Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PC) by kforshey |
| I played GTA: SA again today for half an hour and half to admit that I did come to a bit of a revelation on the content of the game.
I have previously been thinking that it was pretty bad and very detrimental, but had a little bit of a change while playing it today. I was playing and realized that this game truly is what you make of it.
I was thinking what main game mechanic was that was being focused on and it seemed to be get a mission, carry out objective which is very similar to many games I have played previously and had no problems with. I decided to view the content as a means to an end for each individual mission and then I could move on.
When I came to this realization I was tagging graffiti in the East Los altos neighborhood. I found myself trying to tag some graffiti and at the same time keeping a look out for police.
This made me stop and think that this could be not only showing something bad to do, but also demonstrating that this is something that you know you should not do and that there are consequences for these actions(like getting arrested and losing all your money).
After coming to this sort of content as a means to an end realization, I found myself actually enjoying the game a bit and wanting to earn more respect within my gang.
In the end of this post I would say that this game gets an unfair rap, I believe that the game is just not afraid to show the shadier sides of life and it's up to us what we make of that. |
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