Games Beaten - May 2025

This month felt like two months to me, and that's largely because half of it was dedicated to beating Neverwinter Nights.

5/8 LEGO Batman: The Videogame (Wii): 9:51 7/10
5/13 Metroid: Other M (Wii): 9:39 5/10 -- WORST
5/19 Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (PC-Steam): 7:48 7/10
5/22 Black (Xbox): 7:02 6/10
5/26 Sam & Max: Hit the Road (PC-Steam): 4:18 7/10
5/29 Neverwinter Nights - Enhanced Edition (PC-Steam): 42:36 8/10 -- BEST
5/31 Sludge Life (PC-Steam): 1:19 7/10

Neverwinter Nights is very fun, and it replicates the D&D experience to the best of it's ability. The story is just okay, but Aribeth had a cool character arc. Unfortunately I had to cheat at the end of the game because I was severely under leveled and couldn't grind at this point. The last straw was the damn twin dragons just before the final boss. I was playing as a rogue and I had a rogue as my henchmen so we just couldn't do anything about them. I didn't feel like retiring the game 42 hours in so I just bit the bullet and used some cheats. I still got through 99% of the game without cheating, but it sucks I had to use them at the very end.

Metroid: Other M sucks ass. The moment to moment gameplay is fine, but the writing is terrible. The worst part is definitely Samus. Her characterization in this game sucks, and the voice acting makes it even worse. Also having your upgrades be locked behind Adam clearing them for the mission was really dumb. Some of the weapons make sense for that, but not the suit upgrades. For some reason Reggie thought this was going to sell very well, but I have no idea why.

Poppy Playtime (chapters 1-3)
DOOM 2016 (nightmare and Ultra-nightmare)
Immortals of Aveum
Devil May Cry
Devil May Cry 2 (both Dante and Lucia's campaigns)
Persona 5 Royal
Frog Legs

Devil May Cry has joined Sonic 06 and Suicide Squad KTJL in the list of games I've given a 1/10.

I've finished 2 DLC and 1 mini game in May.

Fallout: New Vegas - Old World Blues - 2025-05-17 - 11h33m
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun - Words of Vengeance - 2025-05-22 - 38m (1x easy, 1x medium, 1x hard)
Fallout: New Vegas - Dead Money - 2025-05-27 - 8h12m

Best was Old World Blues, worst was technically Words of Vengeance although I enjoyed all games this month and I would absolutely pay for a longer version of Words of Vengeance.

Happy gaming in June, everyone.

Continued SciAdv...

Completed:
Chaos;Head Noah (Replay) – PC
Completion: 100% | Rating: 90%
Completed on: May 6
May Playtime: 31h48m | Total Playtime: 35h02m

Ongoing:
Chaos;Child (Replay) – PC
Completion: 100% | Rating: 90%
May Playtime: 15h37m | Total Playtime: 15h37m

Still experimenting with the formula for the monthly completed games :\

Not only did I finish a lot of games in May, many of them were absolutely phenomenal.

Split Fiction - 10/10 - May 5
BioShock Infinite - 8.5/10 - May 5
Fallout: New Vegas - 9.5/10 - May 15
NieR: Automata - 10/10 - May 16
Final Fantasy - 7.5/10 - May 20
Slime Rancher - 9/10 - May 22
Mass Effect - 8/10 - May 23
Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! - 10/10 - May 25
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 - 6.5/10 - May 28
Peggle Nights - 9/10 - May 29
Puyo Puyo - 5/10 - May 31

Three of the games I played are 10/10s, Split Fiction, NieR: Automata, and Doki Doki Literature club are absolute perfection. My favorite of the month was NieR Automata though, which very well may be my new favorite game ever. Split Fiction was a delight the entire way through though. And considering I don't play visual novel or horror games Doki Doki Literature Club caught me completely off guard, the storytelling and creativity is unlike anything I've ever seen in a game.

Fallout New Vegas just fell short of 10/10 for me. The story with all the different endings is incredible, but the game has aged and even getting it running was a massive pain. Bioshock Infinite is good, it's a very pretty game with a neat story, I just had a few issues with the combat difficulty scaling in the late game. Final Fantasy was a nice experience, I had to use a guide to get through it but I had fun, the final boss is extremely tough but finally defeating him felt very rewarding. Peggle Nights and Slime Rancher are both solid games, nothing exceptional but still very fun. And Mass Effect was also a really neat experience, the game got a little repetitive, but the story is good and overall it's just a very unique game.

Wario Land is okay, for a Game Boy game it is surprisingly coherent and well made, in fact probably the most well polished GB game I've played other than maybe Link's Awakening and the Zelda Oracle games. But as well made as it is, the platforming and level design got very frustrating and I didn't have the best time with it. As for Puyo Puyo which is the worst game I played, I absolutely love the puzzle aspect, it's super fun. But the versus and adventure mode are just horribly designed and I had a very difficult time getting any enjoyment out of it. I know the 2nd game is way more popular so I'll have to play that at some point.

I want to do a replay of Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2 before the month ends but I have a feeling I'll beat the story mode after it hits 12:00 am so here is everything as of now:

1. Soul Calibur V - 6/10
2. Silent Hill: Homecoming - 6/10
3. Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro - 6/10
4. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Rita's Rewind - 7/10
5. Soul Blade - 7/10
6. LEGO Horizon Adventures - 8/10
7. Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops - 6/10
8. War of the Monsters(replay) - 7/10
9. Asura's Wrath(replay) 6/10
10. Asura's Wrath DLC Part 4 - 6/10
11. Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns - 7/10
12. Onimusha: Warlords(replay) - 8/10
13. Portal 2(replay) - 9/10
14. Sonic Generations(replay) - 7/10
15. Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition(replay) - 7/10
16. Far Cry 4(replay) - 6/10

I got varying degrees of enjoyment from all the games I beat even if a lot of the 6s I played did test my patience at times. Far Cry 4 ESPECIALLY. FC4 might be the worst game I played this month. I remember it being average when I first played and didn't think that much of it but playing it again, my recent playthrough is the equivilant of an actor phoning it in and sleep walking through a movie. The whole game just feels bizarre, it's not even terrible on a techical level, not even something I consider in the realm of poorly made trash but every time I'm playing it I'm like, "this is a worse version of Far Cry 3, can I PLEASE play that instead?"

FC3 and 4 are fundamentally the same game in terms of almost everything yet the former I played for hours and had a blast playing in the moment, the latter I took breaks from every time I did ONE MISSION. I'm starting to see why I jumped ship from the series after 3. I already wasn't big on Blood Dragon and FC4 just took the game design philosophy and logic of that. When I got to the end of FC4, I almost wanted to screamed "DIE" like Nicolas Cage at the end of Face Off. If beating a video game feels like I'm fighting Caster Troy than me feeling like I went on a cool adventure then that is a sign that I'm not 100% immune to the sunken cost fallacy. More I reflect on it, game might just get a 5 instead of a 6 just that the gunplay prevents it from being lower. I'm scared of touching later games now. I'll play a few hours of Primal and if I'm not won over slightly, I'm done.

I did have a solid, if not really good month of completions, FC4 rant aside, just that it might be the most sour way to end things out on. Like a TV show with an awful final season but everything before it was okay-great. But even with the weak ending 90% of it was good and that's what counts even if the botched landing is hard to not think about.

Hell of a month for me thanks to a two-week Game Pass trial:

05/03 - Turnip Boy Robs a Bank (Completionist 7h:22m) - 7.5/10
05/03 - Little Kitty, Big City (Main+Extras 4h:43m) - 7/10
05/05 - Mullet Madjack (Main+Extras 5h:29m) - 8.5/10
05/10 - Road 96 (Completionist 8h:28m) - 7/10
05/11 - Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer (Main 4h:40m) - 5.5/10
05/12 - Donut County (Main+Extras 2h:6m) - 7/10

The links on the scores lead to my review of each game. Most games were in the good not great range this month with two obvious standouts. My worst game of the month is easily Slayers X. It's just not a very good game. I see what they were going for and the shooting and graphic design were alright, but the story, writing, and level design just sucked. The writing was supposed to be bad on purpose as a joke/parody but that doesn't make it any better. On the flip side, Mullet Madjack was by far my favorite game this month. It totally nailed the 80s anime aesthetic, writing, and gameplay. I almost beat the whole thing in one sitting I was having so much fun and it's just such an adrenaline rush. The short length, limited upgrades, repetitive design from being a roguelite, and my own personal struggle with the penultimate boss tempered my enjoyment a bit, but I still had an absolute blast with it. I don't see myself beating another game for quite a while so I'll be absent from these "Games Beaten" threads. Happy gaming!

I've decided to take a small break from RPGs this month, though I did play some Expedition 33.
1st - Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
4th - Bloody Roar
6th - Bloody Roar 2
16th - Persona 5 Tactica
18th - Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge

I chose Red Alert 2 as my return to the RTS genre because of my childhood nostalgia over its J2ME port, and it did not disappoint in the slightest. Crazy story, fun gameplay, cheesy acting, and banger soundtrack - what a masterpiece.
Persona 5 Tactica seems to be cursed for me - I played it on release, then it glitched and refused to progress. I picked it up over a year later, solved the issue, and this time played it almost to the end... Only for it to crash on the last boss, taking all saves with it. It wasn't even particularly worth it - it's just a braindead-easy rehash of the original game's themes, with a lore-breaking story. Screw it, I'm not playing this mediocrity again.
Bloody Roar is a pretty fun fighting, and its sequel even more so. At least for me, who's somewhat used to 2D anime fightings, these turned out to be surprisingly complex. Uriko's Combo Ring, my beloved... I'm planning to play the rest of the series, and try out other 3D fightings.

Lots of stuff, most of it good.

05/12 - Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga (7.5/10)
05/13 - Yoshi's Story (6/10)
05/13 - Gradius (Replay) (6.5/10)
05/19 - Epic Battle Fantasy (6/10)
05/20 - Totally Rad (7/10)
05/21 - Pokémon Emerald (8.5/10)
05/21 - Mario Power Tennis (7.5/10)
05/21 - Life Force (7.5/10)
05/22 - Snowy: Space Trip (5.5/10)
05/22 - The Room Three (6/10)
05/27 - Mega Man X5 (6.5/10)
05/28 - Tenchu: Stealth Assassins (7/10)
05/29 - Sonic Advance 2 (5/10)
05/29 - Gradius: The Interstellar Assault (7/10)
05/31 - Armored Core (7/10)

Most Favorite: Pokémon Emerald is to this day the definitive version to experience the Ruby and Sapphire generation. One of the best Pokemon games ever made and a showcase for what the franchise used to be able to achieve when Game Freak tried.

Least Favorite: I was no fan of the first outing but I think I dislike Sonic Advance 2 even more. This is the game that first introduced the notion of sonic boosting through his levels automatedly and while it looks cool, it gets old when it constantly rips control away from the player. Also every single boss is complete ass, bordering on some of the worst the series has ever seen up until this point. Very disappointing.

Personal Recommendation: There's a ton to recommend but I think Totally Rad deserves this spot due to how few people seem to have actually played it on this site. Acquire were some of the most consistently solid devs back in the day for the NES and this game shows it. The amount of magic options at your disposal mixed with a banging OST rocks.

3 Completions this month. None of the games were absolutely terrible but they could have been more awesome if they had some more dev time.

Wario World - Gamecube, 05/17, 6.5/10
Master Levels for Doom II - PC, 05/22, 8/10 - BEST
Wrack - PC, 05/26, 7/10

I ended up playing Wario World on Dolphin and it could have been much better. I expect way more out of Nintendo games just because of the overall higher quality they usually have, but this was one of the exceptions. The fancy controls are pretty fun in general and the platforming and puzzles are pretty good as well. The bosses were the absolute highlight for me. They were all interesting and provided good enough challenge. But the game is extremely redundant. There's like 5 Enemy Types and all of them are basically reskins from the previous world, not to mention it's extremely short for what would have been a CDN $60 game at the time (Even Super Mario Sunshine had more levels and things to do than this) plus the game just decides to throw some bullshit at the end like falling platforms that crush you but you can't see them because they're off camera. Oh, and I don't get what's with games and annoying beeping sounds when you're low on health, ESPECIALLY during this era. There's lots of potential but I wish it took a more traditional 3D Mario approach.

Wrack was alright, but I like it more for the Utopian Setting and some of the story elements they had in cutscenes. It plays more like a High Concept Sci Fi shooter than it did a Boomer Shooter despite the arcade style points system you have going in the game. The graphics are pretty interesting, I would definitely read a graphic novel with this story in it. I don't know, the gameplay wasn't particularly amazing but it's certainly doing more than it's more modern Boom Shoot counterparts rn. Shitty thing is, this is Episode One. Of a game that was supposed to have multiple episodes. And they never made a sequel. And the studio closed. Thankfully, the studio seems to be back and they're working on a remake and a sequel, so I'm hoping we'll be able to see the rest of the story. I like the setting a lot, that's what kept me playing.

Master Levels for Doom II wins this month's best game title. It's a definite improvement over Doom II and the levels are much better designed. There's only really a few obscure parts, such as the invisible ledge in Map 15 you had to go on but the levels just feel much better to play in general compared to Doom II, although the firefights are not nearly as interesting as Doom II was. It's still worth it, but I wish they didn't use intermission level music for some of the maps they had and instead used other Doom songs instead.

I'm on Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart at the moment and I hope to complete that sooner than later. For now I'm currently back into Ravenfield which is just a single player Battlefield Conquest game I play when listening to Youtube stuff. I'm kinda of getting tired of Indie stuff right now, just too much reliance on Nostalgia and in general not the stuff I'm looking for right now in games is just not going to be found there unfortunately, so I'm going to probably play more AA and AAA games next month if I can keep it up. Maybe I'll finally get around to finishing Yakuza Kiwami 2?

I just did two games, BioShock on the 29th and the Splatoon 3 campaign today on the 31st. Man, I'm slow compared to everyone else... at least I did better than in April.

5/04 Devil May Cry 5 (Replay)
5/19 Death's Door
5/23 Paper Mario: the Origami King
5/27 Doom: The Dark Ages

I didn't get around to finishing a ton of games this month as I have found myself quite invested in high rank endgame of Monster Hunter Rise, but the ones I did were pretty significant overall. My favorite game this month was probably Doom: The Dark Ages. I really liked this game and though it was quite different to that of Doom (2016) and Eternal, it did a good job at feeling familiar and also doing something new that was still fun. It wasn't perfect and I overall think Eternal is still my favorite of all the Doom games, but this one is definitely quite high in terms of my enjoyment overall. There really was no worst game this month as everything I ended up playing was quite fun, but if I had to choose I would probably go with Paper Mario: The Origami King mainly due to the overall combat being kinda boring, though everything else in the game was really great and more than made up for it. I'm definitely excited to see what I manage to get around to finish across this next month as I want to try and beat Elden Ring: Nightreign, which as of now isn't going super well, and also some others stuff such as beating Crimson Glow Valstrax in Monster Hunter Rise.

I completed 17 games this month! (a mix of AAA and indie titles)

Notable Completions:

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax - PC - 7/10
- As much as I remember playing this game on my PS3, it was pretty much the same. I didn't bother with the story but I really like the Golden Arena mode.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder - NSW - 9/10
- Finally finished this game after a year and a half? I enjoyed the new power-ups and wonder flower mechanic, and I think it is a solid 2D Mario game.

Venus Vacation PRISM: DEAD OR ALIVE Xtreme - PC - 6/10
- Not worth the price and the grind. Playing it through once or twice was enough, but for me to achieve 100% completion, I was required to play through it 15 times. It's a dating sim + VN, there are no minigames compared to previous DOA Xtreme titles.

Corpse Party - Steam Deck - 8/10
- This one was the remake version released in 2021. It was fun to play it on the Steam Deck, especially with its eerie music and story. I would never play this on my PC on a big monitor, I might have nightmares.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005 version) - NGC - 9/10
- The best NFS game. I played this back when I was a kid, and playing it again reminds me of how good this game is. I emulated it with the GameCube version and I should have went with the PS2 one since there were graphical glitches. Or maybe I should've just downloaded the PC version....

Some other completions: Amanda the Adventurer (Very fun horror indie game), Tapsonic Bold (Great rhythm game for PC), KH 358/2 Days (The 1.5 Remix version that is just a compilation of cutscenes...)

Favorite:

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - PC - 10/10
- My favorite completion of the month! Great story, gameplay, and especially their soundtrack. I really hope more studios become inspired by this game and create more games from the heart.

I beat 1 game and 1 DLC this month. I hoped I could've beaten Shadows of Doubt as well, but life's been quite busy lately. I'll still try to finish it before Deltarune releases, though.

May 3rd - The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante - 54h 12m - (100%) 4/10 - Started July 4th 2023 - 669 Days Taken - Did all destiny paths. Got all 89/89 achievements.
May 12th - Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Booster Course Pass - 20h 43m - (Main+) 5/10 - Started May 1st - 10 Days Taken - 3 starred 150cc and 200cc grands prix and beat all 150cc time trials.

Short TLDR of my reviews:
The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante - First playthrough was the best one. Don't bother 100% the game like me, it gets incredibly boring and repetitive going through the same dialogue over and over.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - Booster Course Pass - Makes MK8D the definitive Mario Kart game even though the overall quality of the tracks is a noticeable downgrade from the base game.

For me 2 games... technically 1 as it's a collection:

16th May - Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit -
58h 12m 54s
16th May - Ace Attorney Investigations Collection - 82h 7m 54s

Ranking: 2nd - Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Prosecutor's Gambit - Excellent if not the most linear game in the Ace attorney games. With all 5 cases flowing into each other and setting up a whole theme of dealing with corruption.
1st - Ace Attorney Investigations Collection - Both Miles Edgeworth lead games are fantastic takes on the ace attorney series with the 2nd one being a true stand out

A better month than last with four completions:

Kirby and the Forgotten Land - May 09
Sea of Stars: Throes of the Watchmaker - May 22
Sam & Max Save the World - May 23
The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak - May 31

Snuck in Trails at the last minute. We finished it last night; we hadn't intended to finish it but played a lot yesterday.

All things I enjoyed a lot. Kirby was just a fun breezey time as Kirby tends to be. It was great to jump back into Sea of Stars with the DLC and that was a great time. I was really hit with the mood for Sam & Max and I hadn't played TellTale games myself so it's been to rectify that. And Trails is Trails, I love Trails, some less than others of course, but still, Trails. I'm still letting that one settle in my head for my full thoughts on it.

Despite barely gaming this month, to the surprise of myself I got a completion in from a game I wasn't anticipating on reaching that point!

5/23 - Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket (IOS)

I've been playing this one rather casually every day since early this year and had no plans to officially complete it since its endless, but after finishing all the battles released at the beginning I realized I had reached a point I could consider this game completed. So I guess I got a little bonus completion in I didn't really expect in a month I haven't really had time to game so that's nice!

Doom Eternal (PC) - May 12th, 2025 - Nightmare difficulty. 100% Completed. Everything done in every level (Combat, Challenges, Exploration). All Runes found. Suit fully upgraded. All Weapon Upgrades and Weapon Masteries done. Everything found and collected in Fortress of Doom. - REPLAY

Doom: The Dark Ages (PC) - May 22nd, 2025 - Nightmare difficulty. 100% Completed. Everything done in every level (Secrets, Challenges, Collectibles, Gold). Acquired all Demonic Essence Upgrades. Acquired all Shield Base, Shield Rune and Melee Weapon Upgrades. Acquired all Weapon Upgrades and did all of the Weapon Masteries.

Doom Eternal is still my favorite of the modern Doom trilogy, but Doom: The Dark Ages is an incredibly fun game and I can't wait to replay it.

Happy gaming for June!

This month was mainly short titles since I was busy.

A Game About Digging A Hole - It sure as hell was, not something I exactly enjoyed but at least it was calming. Unexpected ending but then again indie games tend to do this all the time
Mega Man: The Power Battle - Hell yeah now this was way more fun than I expected. Beat it with all the characters and loved it every time
8-Bit Bayonetta - Not really fun but it's short and free so who cares. Spent more time trying to get the last achievement I needed than the rest of them, my fingers hurt from the spamming
Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters - Easier to cheese than the first game but equally as good imo. Wish we got more Mega Man arcade games :(
Dino Run DX - Played the flash game a lot as a kid, was nostalgic to play this new version. SO MANY GREAT HATS THOUGH, I had to go with the Alien Hominid hat to represent the goat.
Serious Sam: Kamikaze Attack! - Initially was pretty mindless fun, but the longer I played the more I wanted to stop as it got too repetitive and took so long. Not to mention the missions aren't that great anyway.
Bad Mojo - Weird and trippy as hell but a pretty solid adventure game all things considered. Just frustrating you can't skip the cutscenes that replay
Kirby's Adventure - Picked back up a playthrough I started last year, not a big fan of this game tbh but for an NES title it's pretty good. That final boss sure was one of the most Kirby things to happen xD
Tetris (NES) - Love Tetris but never played this version before, nothing much to say I just had a long and relaxing session while watching stuff.
Donkey Kong (NES) - Had nothing better to do and needed something to relax with, not a big fan of this game.
Pigsaw - Short indie title, there are pigs, you kill them, nice
Tetris DX - Another relaxing and fun sessions of Tetris, did really well here but at one point I just stopped focusing and let it go.
Nightmare Kart - PEAK! Way better than I expected it and holy crap I wish Sony didn't copyright the original project.
The Black Cauldron - Old school Sierra game, rather slow and archaic but at the time this must've been magical, but it was before my time.
Sam & Max: Hit the Road - Loved it, not a fan of these kinds of games but Sam and Max are just lovely,.
Pair-a-Site - Funny little game, but nothing special. Some of the comedy was pretty good and overall a unique idea for a game blending bullet hell gameplay with pairing up people
Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti - Chibified Japanese version of a gorey game, fun way of censoring a game so I had to try it.
The Witch's House - Played with my girlfriend, the puzzles were pretty fun and the death animations are pretty brutal. The true ending really got me holy shit
Don't Pee - Only in video games can people do shit like this I swear, very weird but left me a bit confused with that ending.
Gekibo: Gekisha Boy - You take photos of weird shit going on around the world, a bit hard and you gotta learn a lot of shit by trial and error

A lot of long games back-to-back. That's why there's no completions at the start of the month.

May 18 - Persona 3 Portable (Switch) - 8/10
May 18 - Ring Sculptors (Switch) - 1/10
May 18 - Classic Logical Bundle (Switch) - 3/10
May 30 - Mass Effect (PS4) - 7/10
May 31 - Multiversus (PS5) - 5/10
May 31 - Undefeated (PS5) - 4/10

Best: Persona 3 Portable
Worst: Ring Sculptors

Completed:
Dead of Night: Supermarket – PC
Rating: 4/10
Completed on: May 29
Playtime: 35m

[REC] Desolation – PC
Rating: 3/10
Completed on: May 20
Playtime: 36m

Haunted Property – PC
Rating: 6/10
Completed on: May 19
Playtime: 29m

Garten of BanBan 0 – PC
Rating: 4/10
Completed on: May 19
Playtime: 1h13m

BrokenLore: LOW – PC
Rating: 6,5/10
Completed on: May 18
Playtime: 1h15m

Who am I? – PC
Rating: 5,5/10
Completed on: May 17
Playtime: 49m

Thin Threads – PC
Rating: 4/10
Completed on: May 15
Playtime: 36m

Kiosk – PC
Rating: 6/10
Completed on: May 13
Playtime: 1h12m

Dream Cage – PC
Rating: 5,5/10
Completed on: May 11
Playtime: 1h17m

---

Ongoing:
The Witcher 3

Note:
Many small indie horror games that were all average, but nothing really stood out. My main project right now is The Witcher 3, which is taking up most of my time.

On May ___ I beat [or retired] ___ and gave it a score of ___.

Beat
07 – Eliza – 75%
16 – Heaven’s Vault – 85%
20 – Quantum Conundrum – 70%
27 – Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights – 80%

Retired
21 – Monster Hunter: World – 60%

Best
Best of the month goes to Heaven’s Vault. I enjoyed the exploration, mystery, and constant sense of discovery, and liked deciphering the language.

Worst
I bounced right off my first Monster Hunter game. It reminded me of a single-player MMORPG. It’s a massive grind. I know that’s kind of the name of the game, but I thought there would be more to it.

I have managed to complete more than I expected this month, but unfortunately, most games didn’t rate well. Usually, I play a substantial amount of side content, but this time, I was happy to get through the main story and let the rest go.

As per my New Year's resolutions, I completed 1 large game this month (Far Cry 3), and as I removed 4 games from my backlog, I’ve allowed myself to add one (Uncharted 2: Among Thieves) to the list. With a bit of luck, I might be down to a 2-digit backlog length next month!

04-May-2025 - The Talos Principle: Road to Gehenna (DLC) (PC)– 9H05M
08-May-2025 - Far Cry 3 (PC) – 25H35M
15-May-2025 – Chuchel (PC) – 2H10M
27-May-2025 - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky (PC) – 12H49M
28-May-2025 - Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PC) – 1H56M

I enjoyed The Talos Principle very much, but by the time I finished it, I was burned out and just could not find the patience to play the DLC. A year has passed, and somehow, the DLC did not look as intimidating. Mind you, I did not go for any extra stars and did not try to release the admin. He did not deserve freedom anyway.

Far Cry 3 was a different beast altogether. It’s a very Ubisoft type of philosophy, but more condensed, akin to earlier Assassin’s Creed games. The world design is fantastic, and while it contains the usual achievement-based collectathons, those at least force you to visit ruins and caves that are hidden and might have never been found otherwise. Together with interesting baddies and fun side games, I enjoyed the outing and did a substantial amount of side contact. Easily the best game I played this month, and one I will come back to from time to time.

At the opposite end is the Chuchel adventure game from Amanita Design. I’m not a great fan of the studio, but I like their quirky graphical design and humour. In Chuchel, both those areas feel crude like old Soviet-era cartoons, and did not work for me.

I played S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl 4 years ago, and had the next instalment, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, on my backlog since then. Knowing how buggy those games are out of the box, I did the research and installed some stability and quality of life modes. After that, I’m happy to report I had almost zero issues. Still, I found the game half-baked in almost every department: the large number of unexpected radiation zones, the invisible relics, the badly tuned upgrade system, the clunky combat and the unrefined faction system. I did do a minute amount of side contact, but mostly bee-lined the main storyline to tick the completion box.

Last was Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes. I understand many people consider this almost a tech demo for the main game, and I was very impressed with the quality of the environment and the fantastic cinematic cut scenes. As a game, I did not find it so fantastic, but with such a short outing, it might be too little to form an opinion.

For next month, I’m already closing on finishing Shadow Warrior 2, and as it seems like I’ll have some extra free time, I will consider trying to go for one of the very large games (30+ hours) on my backlog.

My Game Size Guide:
Tiny (0-2 hours), Small (2-6 hours), Medium (6-14 hours), Large (14-30 hours), Very Large (30-62), Epic (62+)

I feel like this was a good month! Mostly short games for sure, but I did have a lot of fun with this lot, and seven is a good number of completions compared to my average this year.

AI: The Somnium Files - May 4th
Mega Man Xtreme 2 - May 5th
Mega Man V (Game Boy) - May 6th
Metal Storm - May 14th
Balatro - May 16th
Hacknet - May 22nd
A Park Full of Cats - May 27th

Out of these my personal favorites were Balatro and Hacknet. Probably everyone here already knows Balatro so not much sense talking about it, but I'm super glad I finally decided to play Hacknet after nominating it for GotM for a while. I don't think it's necessarily amazing as a game, but I had a ton of fun with it, and it got very tense at some points. I also (accidentally) played through the Labyrinths DLC during the main campaign, and it was also extremely enjoyable. Definitely recommend it if seems like something you would be interested in!

Apart from that... The Mega Man games were hit and miss. Xtreme 2 was a bit painful to play, and Mega Man V was probably one of the best portable ones, but all of that is pretty much expected. I also am super close now to have played every official sidescrolling Mega Man, which is pretty neat. AI: The Somnium Files was less interesting than I hoped but way better than I feared. Fun enough as a "detective" type game, but nothing that resonated with me too heavily. A Park Full of Cats is yet another cat finding game, not the best of the series but serviceable.

Also, special mention to Metal Storm. Quite a nice NES game. I don't know how actually well known it is, but I hadn't heard about it until pretty recently so to me it felt like quite a cool hidden gem.

For next month I'll be travelling, so not sure how many completions I'll actually have. I already finished one game, but one that I was playing through the end of May so not super surprising. We shall see I guess!

So i only completed 1 game, but i did allot of replays:

Completed:

Doom+Doom II

Replays:

Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate
Dragon Age II
Dragon Age: Inquisition

Retired:
Saints Row: The Third - Initiation Station DLC (seems like a character maker)