Felix “Knives In” Threepaper
Welcome folks, and happy “349th anniversary of Leibniz demonstrating his integral rule for differential calculus” week! You can all celebrate by playing a game that you claim is a copy of a game you had been secretly working on for years, but hadn’t published yet.
Talisman: Digital 5th Edition is the latest edition of one of my favourite board games as a kid. It gives the game a whole new art style and some newfangled rules that streamline the admittedly unbalanced gameplay. Me and my brother used to circle the board endlessly, picking up every item and follower and upgrading our characters until we owned ¾ of the cards in the decks. Then we would just stalk the board, trying to steal stuff from each other. I’m not sure we ever finished a game. Good times!
The Rise of the Golden Idol is a sequel to the hit puzzle-detective game that was most gaming podcast hosts’ second-favourite game of 2022. It had a reputation for having puzzles that were the right kind of brain-bendy without requiring constant trial-and-error. This time, the setting is the 1970s, but instead of the glamour of disco, it's the gritty absurdity of Disco Elysium. There’s 20 cases and it’s a standalone sequel that doesn’t have any story continuity with the first game.
Hearts of Iron IV: Gotterdammerung is an expansion that focuses on Germany, Austria, Hungary and Belgium, giving you the option to explore alternate histories of their path through World War 2. What if Austria broke away from Germany and teamed up with Hungary? Or you can just go down the same, well-worn path and see if it works out any differently, this time with more research tree options.
Tetris Forever is by Digital Eclipse, devs who do loving restorations of games with a bunch of extra features, like a Criterion Collection edition. This package has 15 classic Tetris games, including some that only released in Japan, like Tetris Battle Gaiden, which is competitive multiplayer battler Tetris. There’s a new game mode: Time Warp Tetris, which warps you randomly between all the other versions of Tetris. The special features include an hour-long documentary about the original Tetris creator, Alexey Pajitnov. This could be the definitive collector’s edition of Tetris.
Farming Simulator 25 just keeps tractorin’ on with its idealised portrayal of industrialised agriculture. There’s a host of new vehicles, half of which look like they could be in a motocross show, and for the first time you can plant rice.
Little Big Adventure: Twinsen's Quest is a remake of an isometric adventure game from 1994 that plays a bit like a Quest for Glory game, minus the stat-grinding. It has the rudimentary bones of gameplay mechanics that, once they simmered in bigger-budget games for a few years longer, made a nice stew. The maps are fairly open to free-roam, you can use stealth to discover hidden secrets and you talk to every critter you see. The combat was a bit simplistic, as it mostly involved throwing a ball at critters. The remake gives it a visual overhaul with a more contemporary art style, and polishes up the gameplay to be more bearable to modern sensibilities, such as by speeding up your crouch walk and giving you some more combat moves.
ASTRONEER: Glitchwalkers is an expansion to this sci-fi planetary survival game, with base-building and exploration, that’s a slimmed-down mixup of No Man’s Sky and Minecraft with shiny graphics. Glitchwalkers provides a new planet, with new biomes to be mildly threatened by, until you terraform everything.
I like the sheer escapism of Farming Simulator 25, and the tractors look and sound really good. But I have to give the GOTW to The Rise of the Golden Idol on the pedigree of its puzzle-crafting.
GWJ Word of the Week
Tetris: A game with shapes that are made up of four square blocks in different configurations. The shapes fall from the top of the screen to the bottom, one at a time, and you can move them around and rotate them before they hit the bottom of the screen. The shapes pile up unless you make solid lines with them. If they pile up to the top of the screen, game over. It’s one of the most popular games in history. If you don’t know it by now, what are we even doing here?
Here's the list, in release-date AND alphabetical order!
PC
-
11-12
- Amazon Passion
- ASTROSMASH 1981
- Capt Crabs a Slimy Adventure
- Death City
- Double Door Brave Chess
- Farming Simulator 25
- Gisselle's Adventure
- In Sink
- Is this game trying to kill me?
- Kira Kira Magical Stars
- Midnight Furry
- Millennia: Atomic Ambitions
- Neo Harbor Rescue Squad
- Out of Your Mind
- Security: The Horrible Nights
- Shape of Dreams: Prologue
- Snowfall Symphony - A tale of Crustallus
- Some Jello and a Hard Place
- Split Souls
- Synchronicity
- Tetris Forever
- The Rise of the Golden Idol
- Trainee Death Simulator
- Viscera
- Void Sols
-
11-13
- 49 Keys
- ASH ECHOES
- ASTRONEER: Glitchwalkers
- Battle Squares
- Bible Jigsaw Puzzle
- Clear Drops
- Deathless Death
- Don't Play Breakout Deluxe
- Envyus
- Extinction Void
- Gore Crush
- I Am Future
- Linked
- Mind Over Magnet
- Mindbug Online
- Pool 2
- Puzzle Player
- Scarlet Defiance: The Wall Between Us
- Songs Of Silence
- Sudoku Topology
- The Cursed Ritual
- Yawnoc
-
11-14
- 1428: Shadows over Silesia - Tourney at the Bear Rock
- Aces Over Airfields
- Addled Clicker
- Balls Up
- Beyblade X: XONE
- Black Mountain Kings
- BRUTAL KATANA
- Bullet Runner
- Butcherbird
- Cain x Nica
- Capacity
- Chloe the Cat
- Codex Lost
- D.A.R - Deadly Alien Rogues
- Debut Project: Cooking Cafe
- Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
- Dungeon Dev
- Eagles of World War 2
- Eloquent
- Equality
- FM Skyline's "Reality"
- Focus
- Hearts of Iron IV: Gotterdammerung
- Irem Collection Volume 2
- Jet Fighters with Friends 4
- Jeux bleu
- King of Ping Pong: MEGAMIX
- LEGO Horizon Adventures
- Little Big Adventure: Twinsen's Quest
- Mindcop
- Multiplayer Barbarians
- NABI
- NAIRI: Rising Tide
- Nightmare House: The Original Mod
- Non-Sucky Numbers
- PAPERHEAD EP0
- PARKOUR CIVILIZATION
- Petit Island
- Resilient
- Shortage
- Smoothcade
- SnackTimeActionGame
- Sorry We're Closed
- Talisman: Digital 5th Edition
- The Automaton of Second London
- The Roc
- Three Six Nine
- TIME SOUL
- Untold Story
- VED
- Voodoo Strikers
- Werewolves 3: Evolution's End
- Whole Note
- Yuanqi Little Theater
-
11-15
- Bioweaver
- BlueCloud Summit
- CASE RECORDS: Fear of Abduction
- D.A.M. Champion
- Deepophobia
- Depths of Faveg
- Dream Home Simulator
- Echoes of Dread
- Eclipse - 2nd Dawn for the Galaxy
- Great God Grove
- GroOove
- Habilis
- Honey Trap
- I commissioned some dogs 3
- Ika's Odyssey
- Industry Giant 4.0
- Inspector Waffles Early Days
- Iron Skies
- JanKenUP!
- Japanese Psycho
- Last Definitive Fantasy
- Legend of PC
- Lumina Rush
- Magical Gyarus Milk Me for Mana
- Mars vs. Robots
- Mistwinter Bay
- My Hotel
- NETHER DUNGEONS
- Origami Treasure
- plus1
- Project Shoreline
- Rain and Respite
- Safelight
- SLASHING NIGHT
- Sorting Your Marbles
- Struggle F.O
- The Black Labyrinth
- The Witch
- Throw Home
- TV Simulator (P.S Games)
- Vlad Voievod Dracula: Dungeons of Egrigoz
- Warranty Man
- Whispers Of Fear
-
11-16
- Viravius Shooter
-
11-17
- Secret Bureau
- Sucker
Xbox Series X
-
11-12
- Farming Simulator 25
- Songs of Conquest
- Tetris Forever
- The Rise of the Golden Idol
-
11-13
- ASTRONEER: Glitchwalkers
- Songs Of Silence
-
11-14
- Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
- Heretic's Fork
- Irem Collection Volume 2
- Petit Island
- Rage of the Dragons NEO
- Smoothcade
- VED
-
11-15
- Great God Grove
- Matsuro Palette
Xbox One
-
11-12
- Tetris Forever
- The Rise of the Golden Idol
-
11-13
- ASTRONEER: Glitchwalkers
-
11-14
- Heretic's Fork
- Rage of the Dragons NEO
- VED
-
11-15
- Matsuro Palette
- Repit
- Slam and Roll
PlayStation 5
-
11-12
- Farming Simulator 25
- Neo Harbor Rescue Squad
- Songs of Conquest
- Tetris Forever
- The Rise of the Golden Idol
-
11-13
- Songs Of Silence
-
11-14
- Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
- Flint: Treasure of Oblivion
- Heretic's Fork
- Irem Collection Volume 2
- LEGO Horizon Adventures
- Mindcop
- Petit Island
- Rage of the Dragons NEO
- Smoothcade
- VED
-
11-15
- Anomaly Agent
PlayStation 4
-
11-12
- Neo Harbor Rescue Squad
- Tetris Forever
- The Rise of the Golden Idol
-
11-13
- ASTRONEER: Glitchwalkers
-
11-14
- Heretic's Fork
- Irem Collection Volume 2
- Rage of the Dragons NEO
- VED
-
11-15
- Anomaly Agent
Nintendo Switch
-
11-12
- Tetris Forever
- The Rise of the Golden Idol
-
11-14
- 49 Keys
- 4x4 Adventure: Rocky Pathways
- Angry Neighbor Simulator
- Beyblade X: XONE
- Debut Project: Cooking Cafe
- Deserted
- Dorfs: Hammers for Hire
- Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake
- Duckweed
- Heretic's Fork
- Irem Collection Volume 2
- JanKenUP!
- Little Big Adventure: Twinsen's Quest
- Matsuro Palette
- Mechanic Supermarket 2024
- Meowsterpiece Museum
- Mindcop
- Miniatures
- MONPIC: The Hatchling Meets a Girl
- Petit Island
- Q to Q 2 Butsuri Edition
- Rage of the Dragons NEO
- SCP-087 THE STAIRWELL HORROR
- Slam and Roll
- Smoothcade
- VED
- Visa Control: USA Border Simulator
- Voodoo Strikers
- Ys: Ancient Ys Vanished
-
11-15
- A Good Gardener
- Access Denied: Escape
- Bear Simulator - Ragnarok's Rise Survival
- Cat Clean Ocean
- Check and Slash
- Goblin Slayer Another Adventurer: Nightmare Feast
- Great God Grove
- Land of Mushrooms
- Mounted Knights Battle : Medieval Warrior Honor Simulator
- Neko Bento
- Shanghai Mahjong Solitaire Premium II
- Snaky Snakes
-
11-16
- BodyRec Assault Shooter
Comments
Huh the Spyro series for $14!
Property of the Bensonhoist Lesbian Choir of Ground Zero, Brooklyn
I've been playing this and it is so good. Felix is right, it totally functions as a standalone sequel, though there actually is story continuity with the first game. But it's not necessary to have played the first game to enjoy this one, and if I were recommending one of them, I'd recommend Rise - it's an excellent refinement in every way. It's just that if you have played the first, you will know certain things about the Idol and the world that give context to events you see in this one.
The GWJ JRPG Club Version 2.5 HD Remaster | Backlog
Glad you're enjoying it, LastSurprise! It's on my wishlist for sure.
Thanks for clarifying re the story continuity ... I haven't played either game yet, so misinterpreted devs saying words to the effect of "new story, you don't need to play the first game" as "no continuity".
Defunk'd Bloggue
Bluesky: @lancecalhoon.bsky.social
I’ll revise what I said a little bit about the first game helping to understand the second. I do think that having played the first game actually helps with a couple mid-game puzzles. I’ve thrown that comment into spoilers — there are no story spoilers, but avoid this if you’d prefer to be totally blind.
The story jumps 200 years forward in time from the first game. So the level of continuity is kind of like how understanding an event in British history might help you understand a later, but related event in American history.
The GWJ JRPG Club Version 2.5 HD Remaster | Backlog