Friday, January 16, 2015

January Read Play Blog: What I'm Looking Forward to in 2015

Today is one of those times where 5 Fandom Friday and Read Play Blog overlap, but I'm skipping 5 Fandom Friday this week. Cons aren't really my scene, so I wouldn't really have any good answers!


Read Play Blog is a meme about video games and books, posted every 16th of the month. Bloggers are encouraged to answer a discussion question, and recommend a video game that is similar to a book they liked. Hosted by Happy Indulgence Books & Read Me Away.



Today's Read Play Blog question is: What games are you looking forward to in 2015?

Truth be told, none. At least in terms of new releases. I don't keep track of video game releases at all, for a couple of reasons. First and foremost is that after a 2+ year dry spell, I am way behind. Case in point: it's 2015 now (holy crap!!) and I still haven't finished Fallout 3, Ni no Kuni, or Demon's Souls. There's a long, long queue of games in JV's collection I need to get to—I don't have time for new releases!

The other, lesser reason is that I simply don't have the discretionary funds for new games right on release. Fortunately, thanks to the fact that I'm immensely far behind in the gaming world, this doesn't bug me as much as it might otherwise.

What I'm looking forward to hopefully being able to play for the first time in 2015 is a different story, though! There are two on the top of my list: Fez and Thomas Was Alone. And while I may have finally been a late convert to Steam, both of those games are unavailable on Linux! They are, at least, available on PS3, so when I clear up some space in my gaming queue I can add them to it.

I was not one of the people clamoring on the Internet for Fez after Phil Fish initially previewed it in 2007 or whenever. The name was familiar to me, in that sort of Internet osmosis way that anything tangentially related to what you're interested in eventually becomes familiar to you, but I didn't know anything about it except that people hated Fish. I didn't see any of the game in detail until JV and I watched Indie Game: The Movie, and I decided that it looked really lighthearted and fun and challenging.

I don't know how I came across Thomas Was Alone. I think it was a blog I follow, or maybe a video review JV was watching? But I live for that puzzle shit, and I love how understated and unique the whole look is. It takes a lot of creativity to make an entire game just out of a few shapes!



Recommendation

I mean, I already wrote a lot of words on this, but I think everyone should at least try Papers, Please, no matter what kind of genre preferences they have. That said, it's a game that I think dystopian aficionados in particular will enjoy. Are you a fan of 1984? Franz Kafka? This game is for you.



Currently Playing

But what currently has the bulk of my attention is this ridiculously ~super kawaii desu ne~~ visual novel game, Long Live the Queen. One of my friends called it "that anime murder sim" and gave me some friendly shit for spending so much time on it, but I can't help it! I have too many thoughts on it to go into detail here, except to say that it appeals to that inner optimizer I talked about with The Novelist


2 comments:

  1. Yay! I love Thomas Was Alone! Papers, Please is still on my list. Maybe during another sale I'll pick it up.

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    1. Thomas Was Alone just looks so cute and quirky! If you can call blocks cute, I guess...

      At full price Papers, Please is only $10 so it's not much at all if/when it goes on sale.

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