This seems really fun, I'd love to join in with whatever the next game is. Just voted!

Unfortunately, I have no idea. And I feel like googling these dates would be cheating/not fun.

Btw: I had the idea that if one of my images would not be guessed by people, even after some hints, instead of just giving away the title it could be fun to play a round of hang man. Probably hang man is know but just in case: I would show the length of the title in terms of underscores (let's say, the game is Elden Ring: _ _ _ _ _ | _ _ _ _) and someone else would take a guess for a letter, let's say "e" which leads to: E _ _ e _ | _ _ _ _ and so on.

Every wrong letter, that is a letter not in the title, leads to a completion of the gallows, 3 wrong guesses and it's game over (and the world ends).

Start (0 wrong guesses)
..+---+
..|...|
......|
......|
......|
......|
=========

Wrong guess 1: head
..+---+
..|...|
..O...|
......|
......|
......|
=========

Wrong guess 2: arms
..+---+
..|.....|
..O...|
./|\....|
........|
........|
=========

Wrong guess 3: both legs (game over)
..+---+
..|.....|
..O...|
./|\....|
./.\....|
........|
=========

(gallows created by AI)

Might be fun?!

Game #276: Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes

Platform: Switch
Main + Extras: 118h 02m 49s
Rating: 6/10
Date Completed: September 28, 2026
Picked By: R2D21999

Game Synopsis: Play as Shez through an alternate timeline of Three Houses where Byleth hadn't gone to the monastery. Go to war and slash through thousands of enemies.

Blog: I'm not new to these Warriors crossover games. I've played the original Hyrule Warriors and Fire Emblem Warriors. These games scratch a little itch in my game as I love slashing though entire armies of enemies. Fire Emblem Warriors was definitely my least favorite of the two, and I was pretty much expecting the same vibe as that with Three Hopes just with a Three Houses skin. I was both wrong and right about that.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes actually completely surprised me in the first few hours of the game. Usually the spinoffs are just mostly musou gameplay with the skin of whatever franchise it's taking from. Three Hopes was like, 50/50 in that it had the musou gameplay of course, but it had a lot of the mechanics from Three Houses as well. There were supports, all the customization options with the different classes, cooking food to boost stats, battalions are here as well although function differently, and a hub world where you can walk around and interact with characters. Then there's the new stuff that would feel right at home in Three Houses such as being able to upgrade buildings and upgrading tactics.

I also thought how chapters were set up was quite interesting. In most chapters you have a bunch of smaller missions between the main story missions. I didn't mind this at first, and actually thought it was quite interesting. However, as time went on I felt like these smaller missions were quite repetitive as each chapter had the same exact missions such as: killing 500 enemies, fight through a foggy battlefield, fight two different armies, etc. These repeated in every chapter that had missions. It started becoming less fun as I played and felt more like a chore. This really sucked for me as these missions were pretty much where you'll spend most of the game. I looked forward to the story missions though as they were always pretty unique with different events going on and being able to use strategies to give yourself different benefits like recruiting characters or giving stat buffs.

Speaking of story, that's arguably the weakest part of the entire game. I didn't mind how this was a "what if" kind of story, in fact that initially made me pretty intrigued. First of all, I like how Three Hopes expanded on the Three Houses lore a bit and even shows us characters that were only mentioned but never shown in Three Houses. Such as the fathers of a few of the nobles and Hilda's brother. That's kind of where my compliments of the story stops though.

Keep in mind, I've played through all three main routes, getting the good ending in two routes, and a bad ending in one of them (being Dimitri's route). So I've seen the majority of what the game has to offer in that respect. Edelgard's route is probably the best of the three story-wise but still not really enjoyable as there aren't really any stakes. Dimitri's route is kind of boring as he doesn't have his big character moment like he does in Houses and they also make a choice with Edelgard in this story that I just completely despise. Claude's route is a mess. He makes choices halfway through the game that just leaves me baffled, the whole Almyra stuff doesn't really go anywhere, and the story ends pretty unsatisfying. Also the main character Shez doesn't really get expanded upon. Perhaps slightly so in the "good" endings but nothing worth noting, those bring up more questions than answers if anything, and their rivalry with Byleth felt forced and pointless. Also a big antagonist from Three Houses just... isn't in the game at all! Maybe some mention of them here and there but I was expecting something involving them at least.

The characters were a hit and miss for me. While I enjoyed most of the new characters and getting more information on the older characters, there were some that I just didn't like. Monica is like the worst character in the series. She has Hubert's obsession with Edelgard but dialed up and extremely useless. For the other characters, I already mentioned my issues with the main characters and how they were either boring or made decisions that didn't make sense for the character. But I think one of the more egregious examples of a character being entirely different is Sylvain. Sylvain in Three Houses is a guy who flirts with all the women he sees, not the most interesting or likeable character perhaps but it was a quirk with him. For some reason in Three Hopes his character is now about how he isn't anything like how he used to be anymore and he's changed now... which kind of frustrates me more than the original character did. He's a completely different character now and even worse, all of his character development happens offscreen. So you don't even see any sort of transition. That sucks! Show me the development!

One gripe I have with the game is how some characters just aren't playable. Hanneman, Gilbert, Cyril, and Alois who were playable in Three Hopes aren't playable here. And there are some characters such as Randolph or Judith that I wish were playable but just aren't for some reason.

I gave Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes a 6/10, so I did mostly enjoy my time with the game. Coincidentally, this is the same score I gave the first Fire Emblem Warriors game. If I had to choose which one I would replay, it'd be the original Fire Emblem Warriors game. Despite the story being significantly worse in that game and how the selection of characters was absolutely awful, it had a ton of replayablility with the history mode. Three Hopes doesn't really have the same amount of replayability.

Three Hopes is overall okay. It has quite a lot of issues that I just can't really overlook though.

TL:DR: Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is a decent Warriors spinoff of Fire Emblem Three Houses. The implementation of various Three Houses systems into the game was a pleasant surprise and added to the game. However the story was bad, the missions on the map got repetitive, and some characters left a lot to be desired.

Up Next: And that there's the end of the game I had chosen. An okay game but not great but that's how it goes.

Time for the next game, which is:



Neon White! Picked by Vxpok! Ooooh this is an intriguing one. I've seen quite a bit of gameplay of this one online and I'm interested to play it for myself.

Daily Challenge - 2026-09-29
Score: 190 / 300
🟪🟧🟧 🟦 = 63 | S | Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
🟧🟧🟩 🟩 = 49 | P | My Time At Portia
🟧🟪🟪 🟦 = 78 | R | Venba

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Daily Challenge - 2026-09-29
Score: 212 / 300
🟪🟪🟪 🟦 = 95 | S | Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
🟩🟦🟪 🟦 = 75 | R | My Time At Portia
🟪⬛⬛ 🟦 = 42 | P | Venba

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Daily Challenge - 2026-09-29
Score: 181 / 300
🟪🟪🟪 🟦 = 96 | S | Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse
🟧🟧🟪 🟦 = 60 | R | My Time At Portia
⬛⬛⬛ 🟪 = 25 | P | Venba

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Daily Challenge - 2026-09-28
Score: 192 / 300
🟩🟦🟦 🟩 = 75 | S | Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
🟪🟦🟪 🟪 = 93 | R | Apotheon
⬛⬛🟧 🟩 = 24 | P | Sonic Superstars

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Latest Soulfly album and latest Jinjer album. I like the sound throughout this Soulfy album, and I think this track demonstrates it best of all of them. It's full on and has a very urban jungle feel to it.



I really like listening to individual tracks by Jinjer, but to be honest I am often underwhelmed when I sit down and listen to a full album. But this was one of the better tracks I think.

can an ability to view the entire tracking history be added? something like you see on the profile, but not limited to 5 elements (far as i'm aware the db does save older entries, since when you delete them older ones show up?)

additionally could be nice to see them separated by months/years, so you can see what you did in one month that didn't include beating games or updating reviews

I have a question. Where do I request for adding missing DLC to a game?

I want the below added in this order for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition:

Chronicles: Battle for Greece
The Three Kingdoms
Chronicles: Alexander the Great
The Last Chieftains (This is already listed)
The Viking Sagas

Similar to submitting a game, you can then edit and select DLC/Expansion as the game type.



(Note: The submit button is in the header of the site, in case you didn't know)

Hint #3: It was funded on kickstarted before the game launched in early access. The kickstarter ran during October of 2025. The early access release date was July 31st 2026.

The poll is up !

https://strawpoll.com/eNg6vrRKLgA

I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts on your blog whenever you eventually get to playing it. But really, it's not a bad game, just don't expect it to be the greatest of its generation (or whatever superlatives the general consensus seems to heap upon the game), and chances are, you'll probably have a decent enough time.

I probably won't. I gave up on expecting masterpieces from media hyped up by the various internet communities a while ago. It has sort of become what Undertale was and it got mega popular entirely by accident. The game being heavily parry oriented could throw me off.

I haven't played this game yet and I also haven't read the spoiler sections of the either but I do agree with the general sentiment regarding mysteries and mystery boxes. I thought this game was going to be more of a goose chase than revolving around a mystery over 40 hours. Still got to play it but the way you are describing does sound off putting. Also sad to hear that it's one of those game stories where it has a weaker middle half.

I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts on your blog whenever you eventually get to playing it. But really, it's not a bad game, just don't expect it to be the greatest of its generation (or whatever superlatives the general consensus seems to heap upon the game), and chances are, you'll probably have a decent enough time.

I have a question. Where do I request for adding missing DLC to a game?

I want the below added in this order for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition:

Chronicles: Battle for Greece
The Three Kingdoms
Chronicles: Alexander the Great
The Last Chieftains (This is already listed)
The Viking Sagas

I have a question. Where do I request for adding missing DLC to a game? My create thread is crossed out, so posting it here.

I want the below added in this order for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition:

Chronicles: Battle for Greece
The Three Kingdoms
Chronicles: Alexander the Great
The Last Chieftains (This is already listed)
The Viking Sagas

Today we will don our peg legs and eyepatches to discuss the morality of video game piracy as well as personal experiences with it. What are favorite games that we were introduced to through piracy and how did piracy change throughout the years? How much agency does a creator keep over their art once its public and how much can the masses transform media before crossing an ethical line? And why the heck is piracy so popular in the first place?

Additionally, expect news about the state of fruit fly brain simulation, a tale of Abby’s Peggle deficiencies, an update on Matt’s biggest stack of weed, Lia’s rock collection, a new gaming setup for Roy, and a complete disaster with a Russian games collection.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Recently I have finished Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and honestly, I wasn’t impressed. Certainly not to the extent that I expected I would, considering the near-unanimous praise the game got. I will admit, part of my disappointment does stem from the fact that I might have sat down to play this game with too high expectations, but that’s really just a small part of it. (It’s rather timely, though, that I just recently talked about hype and its effects two posts ago.)



As a foreword, I will give warnings when we get to spoiler territory.

My main problem was with the story, but before I get to that, a couple of words about the other parts of the game. The battle system is an interesting mix of real-time and turn-based, and it’s quite nice, especially coupled with the way the game lets you learn and equip passive abilities, there are some fun things you can do with these. The one part of the game that was unquestionably great was the presentation. The game is an audiovisual delight, the designers truly outdid themselves. This world, that is currently in the process of falling apart, creates a unique and interesting atmosphere.

On to the story then. Except, we need to talk about mysteries first. What they are, how they generally work, so bear with me while I talk about things some would consider rather obvious. The reason I need to talk about such things is that my issue with the story of Expedition 33 is partially a me problem. It is I who have some issues with mysteries that some may have better tolerance toward. In order to explain my problems with the game, however, I need to get everyone on the same page regarding mysteries first.

When I say mysteries, I’m talking about stories where the whole plot revolves around a mystery, where it’s the main point. Think a classic whodunit, that’s all about the mystery of who the killer is and how they did it. Most stories have mysteries in them, or just simple unanswered questions, but not in every story are they a central thing. Or maybe even the game offers more than just its central mystery. (Think Persona 4, for example. Yeah, there’s a main mystery involving a serial killer on the loose, but it’s also a high-school life-sim with a ton of side stories to get involved in, so you could just get yourself immersed in the latter.)

Mysteries are, by their nature, rather back-loaded with major plot beats. The big reveals and revelations are at the end. You only learn who the killer is at the very end, right? This only happens at the end because if you learn who the killer is and how they did it in the middle, then what is the other half even about? You resolved the mystery halfway through, and since the mystery was the whole point, the story is essentially over. (There might be some exceptional writers out there who could even make a mystery story work with a mid-point reveal, but I’m talking generally about how mysteries usually go, and why.) That means that a mystery can have a harder time keeping the audience invested, unlike a simple adventure that can throw wild twists and revelations in the middle, mysteries can only have the big surprises at the end. That’s also where personal preference comes in. Obviously it comes down to how good the narrative is in keeping your interest, but it also comes down to you, how long you’re willing to wait for the big reveal, how much is enough for you, regarding the slow drip feed of information and clues that mysteries try to keep you hooked with.

Now, I like a good whodunit as much as the next guy, and don’t hate mysteries central to the plot either… as long as they are resolved in a timely manner. A series with 45-minute episodes or a 2-hour movie is perfectly fine with me, and I don’t much mind the runtime in a 6-10-hour game either for the most part… but for a 40-hour-long RPG? I’m not so sure about that one. The gameplay can only engage me for so long if the story is going nowhere.

You can probably see where I’m going with this regarding Expedition 33, but before I get back to the actual game, I need to discuss another aspect of mysteries that I have mixed feelings about.

Which basically is that the big revelation at the end can never live up to the hype that leads to it. You spend who knows how much time being excited about the big reveal, wondering to yourself: I can’t wait to learn the truth. What could have happened 10 years ago that set the entire story in motion? Who could the killer be?! This was just an example, but I personally feel that letting the audience’s imagination run wild for an extended period of time can backfire pretty badly, because then things just end like this: The killer was Bob, and the victim actually screwed him over 10 years ago, so the victim kind of had it coming. This was the reveal that you were waiting for all this time. Of course, a lot of it comes down to the quality of the writing, how good the big twist is, how well it was built up. But I also feel like that after I just spent hours hyping up myself about the answer, it can never quite live up to the excitement that I just built up. After all, the answer is just that. The answer. Now that you know it, you know it, and the story is usually over after you learn it. Over the years, I found that, at least for me, getting overly invested in a central mystery is just never worth it. Will the big reveal be really that mind-blowing, will it truly recontextualize everything that came before it to such an incredible extent? The answer I usually come to is no. As such, I prefer not being so swept up in the big mysteries of the narrative, cautiously waiting for how things turn out, and being pleasantly surprised if it’s something particularly clever.

Now we can actually talk about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a game with a central mystery at its core. Now the next paragraph(s) won’t get too spoiler-heavy yet, however, while I won’t say what the big twist is, I will generally describe how the plot develops, so if you want to go into the game completely blind, this is your warning.

The story, actually, starts off pretty strong. It sets a melancholic tone as you witness an incredibly tragic event. Now, you know your objective for the game, the purpose of the expedition. You don’t just have to save the world, which you do in every other game, but now, through the protagonist, you get an immediate emotional connection to why all this matters. The plot sets up the stakes perfectly. I give credit where it’s due, the game absolutely nails the first hour or so.

After that, though, you will spend 35 hours dungeon crawling while the story goes nowhere. Sure, things do happen during those 35 hours, but as for the big mystery of the setting, you’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop. As I established, I knew this was a mystery, and I knew that I wouldn’t have answers until the end, I also knew this was an RPG of at least 50 hours (thankfully it was only 40, at least if you largely ignore side content). I only have so much patience towards any narrative that’s seemingly going nowhere, and in the case of a mystery, I know for a fact that I won’t get anything until the end. As such, the game’s attempts to maintain my interest were lost on me. If anything, I only grew more annoyed with every cryptic conversation that I will obviously not understand until the 11th hour.

All the more unfortunate considering that when the story is actually on, it’s pretty good. As I said, those early hours were good, and so were the last couple of hours, when we finally know what’s going on. I won’t say that the middle stage of the game is completely unenjoyable, the characters are still great and so are their interactions. The drama this story is centred around, that we eventually get to, is quite compelling. When the drama hits, it is portrayed exceptionally. It is such a shame that it takes so long to finally get to it. Long enough for the game to lose me, in any case.

Now I’m going into full spoilers, though, read on only if you finished the game.



One thing I never established or proved is that Expedition 33 is centered around a mystery. Partially because I think it’s kind of obvious, and partially because the reason is a bit spoilery. Not too heavily, but perhaps enough to discuss this after the big spoiler warning. So the main mystery is about what is going wrong in this world, and not about defeating the Paintress, or even necessarily about the journey to get there. I mean, come on, beating the big bad and saving the day? There was obviously gonna be more to it than that. Obviously, because I consumed fiction before, I know how these things tend to go, things are never that easy, and obviously, because it is established pretty early on how much the characters just don’t understand about the very world that’s killing them. Hell, one character outright wonders in the prologue that the Paintress might be a victim too, stuck in a cycle of pain. I could only nod sagely to that and think: “Yep, that very much seems like a twist the game would throw at you near the end. There will obviously be more to this whole Gommage thing than meets the eye.”

So yeah, we know from pretty much the beginning that there’s more to come, that there’s a central mystery at the heart of Expedition 33. And that’s even before all the cryptic talks and foreshadowing start. I also think that maybe the game showed its hand much too early. That maybe it should have kept its cards closer to its heart.

Because it’s not like there’s much more going on in the game than waiting to see how this Paintress thing plays out. Unless you are completely enamoured with the gameplay and dungeon crawling, the main narrative of defeating the Paintress doesn’t really develop until literally after you defeat her. And no, all the cryptic talks and foreshadowing don’t really advance the main plot, they only confirm that there’s more to it than we know. And since I knew that from the very first hour, having another batch of mysterious conversations only served to aggravate me more.

I brought up Persona 4 before, as a long RPG with a central mystery to it, as an example of how to do this better, and I’m bringing it up again, because there’s not much more to Expedition 33 than its main story. Admittedly, I didn’t really go out of my way to engage with its optional content, but whenever I would take one step off the beaten path during the game, I would get curbstomped by much stronger monsters, or get the big flashing “Danger” sign when trying to enter an optional dungeon. As far as I know, the game only really opens up to its side content in Act III, but that’s only after the big reveals. I mentioned how in Persona 4 there’s a social simulation part so extensive you could come to the game exclusively just for that, and forget about the whole serial killer thing. In Expedition 33 you can bond with your teammates, but it’s a fairly short affair. Sure, these unlockable scenes are nice enough, and both the characters and the writing are good, as I said before, when the game portrays drama, it does so excellently. This part of the game, however, is not so big a part to effectively supplement the main narrative in a major way. Expedition 33 also doesn’t have major sidequest lines the kinds you would see in a Dragon Age or Witcher game. In fact, let’s talk about the premise of the first Dragon Age. There’s this random race of evil monsters that are hell-bent on destroying the world, and you have to stop them somehow. Not a particularly complicated premise, is it? And that’s not even what the game is mostly about, either. Even if you think that there might be a bit more to this army of monsters, they are still just that. Obviously monsters that need to be stopped. In Expedition 33, as early as the prologue, characters wonder if the Paintress is even the real villain.

I bring up Persona 4 and the premise of Dragon Age: Origins to illustrate that Expedition 33 has its premise and little else. You have nothing but the journey to defeat the Paintress, while the plot constantly hints at that not really being the solution the problem. With the narrative not being in any rush to go anywhere, you are stuck waiting for the main mystery to finally unravel itself.

Now then, lets discus narrative specifics.

There is one egregious moment I can pinpoint, when I really didn’t know what to make of the game’s plot, and the moment that kind of ruined the story for me. It was Gustave’s death. It is around this time that Maelle started having her weird visions and nightmares, full of those cryptic talks that I keep mentioning. The ones that made no sense for us at the time, and the ones that annoyed the hell out of me as a result. Right before the dungeon that kills Gustave, we get the longest cut scene so far, that cements the fact that there’s a lot more to this whole situation that we know. In it, we see this white haired women repeating this mantra: “Those who know not, that they are not.” And I was like: They are not? So they don’t exist? Oh no, is this another one of those twists where we find out at the end that nothing is real? Where everything was just a dream, or something to that effect? (I’m not a fan of the “everything was just a dream” type of twist, but I’m not going get deeper into that here, that’s a whole other discussion.) Because if that’s the case, then how much does the death of Gustave matter? I’m not exactly gonna grieve for him if it turns out his death can easily be undone.

And guess what? His death really was that easy to undo, as one of the endings proves.

I described this part because here, one third into the game, the story already firmly established that there’s a lot more going on than we understand, and foreshadowed hard enough for me to correctly deduce (or at least, suspect) that the world is not real. With all this knowledge, and knowing that since this is a mystery, there won’t be answers until the very end, now I need to play another two-thirds of this game.

Do you, dear reader, now understand where my frustration comes from, regarding the game’s story?

I was already getting bored of the dungeon crawling of the first third of the game, and now I have to do this for another 30 or so hours before the story will graciously explain anything to me. All the while, every other hour I get another scene where characters, who are clearly in the know, are talking about things I’m not in the know about, knowing damn well that due to the nature of mysteries, I won’t be in the know until the very last hour. And I was right, there really was nothing until those last couple of hours. My fears and frustrations about the storytelling were proven right. That adds up to 5 hours of meaningful story progression: 2 hours at the beginning, 3 hours at the end, with 35 hours of empty dungeon crawling in the middle.

It is perhaps a testament to the strength of the narrative that I still quite liked those last few hours, but by then, my relationship with the game soured irreversibly.

I haven't played this game yet and I also haven't read the spoiler sections of the either but I do agree with the general sentiment regarding mysteries and mystery boxes. I thought this game was going to be more of a goose chase than revolving around a mystery over 40 hours. Still got to play it but the way you are describing does sound off putting. Also sad to hear that it's one of those game stories where it has a weaker middle half.

So this is essentially an expanded version of what I’ve written in the “Post you wins” thread about Your Crown is Mine not long ago. I figured I should write some shorter pieces here if I have the opportunity.



Your Crown is Mine is a stat-raising game more along the lines of Long Live the Queen rather than Princess Maker. It has a more rigid and defined structure. It’s not as free-form as your typical Princess Maker style game, where you can become anything you want. There’s a main story and a concrete goal you work towards, and you can only influence events around that framework.

The premise is what I would describe as a mix of Long Live the Queen and the “reincarnated as the villainess” trope that became popular in anime in recent years. Though this is not an isekai story, and that whole villainess thing? It’s kind of tacked on, and even the story drops it at the halfway point, just reading the product description on Steam is somewhat misleading.

So it’s better to take the villainess part with a grain of salt, the premise and story setup are probably something you shouldn’t think too hard about. Cause the writer certainly didn’t! Let’s address the elephant in the room without being too harsh or being overly critical, but Your Crown is Mine is very, VERY clearly someone’s first attempt at a game. This shows especially in terms of the writing, which is… extremely self-indulgent, awfully convenient most of the time, and has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer to the face. It is not what I would call quality writing, it’s what I would call amateurish.

After the first half an hour, I had the suspicion that this was the developer’s first game, and that we are talking about A developer, in singular. After checking, I was right on both counts. I’m not saying this to damn the game, it just… it shows.

Yet, I didn’t hate the end result, it was alright for what it was. I mean, it wasn’t a terribly exciting affair, but it moved fast, and like most games of its kind, it wasn’t a long one. Although you have 15ish endings to achieve, I didn’t feel compelled to replay the game in full, I only messed around with the last couple of choices near the end of the game. Here, however, I found that choices seemed to only affect your stats, not the story proper. Which is really weird considering some choices really should have pretty big ramifications, and this is one of those things that the genre markets itself upon. Needless to say, this is not a good look, it seemed that the only thing that truly changes based on your decisions is the ending, and that’s just the last few slides of the game and an extra conversation. Again, I want to point out that I did not do a full replay to see how much I can change, but just based on what I saw here, I felt even less inclined to.

The gameplay itself is functional, but little beyond that. At least in the first third, when it’s about raising stats, but Act II and III are more about trying not to lose stats. What you’re doing remains largely the same, and it fits with the story context, but I did not enjoy the shift in approach. It changes the way you perceive the game, instead of playing to win, you are just trying not to lose, and I found that to be rather unsatisfying.

All in all, Your Crown is Mine is decent for someone’s first attempt at a game, but I can’t say it terribly engaged me. I guess if you really want something more along the lines of Long Live the Queen, then you can give it a try.

New open-world Starcraft game announced.

WOW! Nice!

Daily Challenge - 2026-09-28
Score: 213 / 300
🟦🟪🟩 🟦 = 80 | R | Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
🟦🟩🟩 🟩 = 63 | S | Apotheon
🟦🟦🟦 🟩 = 70 | P | Sonic Superstars

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

Daily Challenge - 2026-09-28
Score: 194 / 300
🟪🟪🟩 🟩 = 75 | R | Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
🟩🟧🟧 🟦 = 49 | S | Apotheon
🟪🟦🟧 🟩 = 70 | P | Sonic Superstars

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

UPDATE #47

Indiana Jones and the Eternal Circle - Amazon Luna
Genre: Action
Developer/Year: MachineGames, 2024
SCORE: 8/10

A GREAT RETURN

15 years passed between the last two Indiana Jones movies and the last games. The most famous archaeologist was off the radar of pop culture for quite some time, and even if the character was still widely known, no major releases using this intellectual property were published. Even if the 2023 movie was nothing worthy of note, the game gained worldwide praise and was at the center of the industry's attention for quite some time.


Obviously the Indy 3D model is great

Set between the original Spielberg movies, the game starts with Indiana Jones quietly in Connecticut, teaching at his college. One night a mysterious giant breaks into the archaeology faculty, beats up Jones, and steals a cat mummy that was just found by Indy in one of his expeditions. The giant conveniently loses a pendant with the Holy See mark on it, and Indy promptly abandons his career to follow the giant in Rome, where the fascists rule with an iron fist. During his investigations in the Vatican, Jones finds an Italian reporter disguised as a nun, Gina Lombardi, who starts to follow him since it seems that the mystery pursued by Indy is related to her sister's disappearance. While the fascists guard the Holy See secrets from the curious Jones, soon the Nazis make their appearance, led by the brilliant and ruthless archaeologist Emerich Voss. Soon Indiana Jones finds himself unveiling a larger plot that takes him to Gizeh and Sukhothai in the search of the truth regarding an ancient artifact and a mysterious order of giant people.

Even if the plot is not brilliant in my opinion, it is a great Indiana Jones adventure that could easily fit in a regular movie of the franchise. One of the main strengths of the game is just being such a believable playable version of an indie movie, and modern technology really helps to build this feel. There aren't a lot of characters: besides Indy, Gina, and Voss, every map has some minor characters that act as helpers and antagonists, but no one is truly forgettable. A special mention goes to Voss, who is a great villain: he is evil and cynical but also a coward and a dork, all characteristics that make him very human. The three major locations are astounding and full of charm, especially Rome: I've visited the Vatican multiple times, and seeing it masterfully reconstructed under the fascist rule sent chills down my spine. There is only one thing that I really disliked: Mussolini. It's just not him; it's totally different from its real counterpart. It feels strange that the developers worked really hard to build a believable historical reconstruction and then missed something so obvious. Maybe it is done on purpose, but being Italian, I would have preferred a more grounded reproduction of that little, arrogant, and vicious man.

WHIP, MYSTERIES AND EXPLORATION

The Great Circle is an open-world adventure at its core, centered about the exploration of three major macroareas. You have to go around completing the major mission and the side quests while collecting some collectibles hidden around the map. The maps are tightly built around the activities; they are not big, but every corner was custom built with a purpose. In a time where open-world games want to be massive to incorporate different biomes and radically different areas, The Great Circle goes in the opposite direction and works really well. The Vatican is a dense urban environment packed with modern and ancient buildings that develops vertically; Gizeh is a vast desert area to traverse by foot in the search of ancient tombs; and Sukhotai is a dense jungle where the different areas can be accessed only by navigating rivers and lakes with a small indigenous boat. Every environment has its challenges and its gameplay focuses, and they help to keep the experience varied until the end. Indy can acquire different disguises during the main story missions, which help him to go around undetected and access restricted areas while sacrificing some of his total health. The collectibles are well tied in with the environment and come in the right number, but I disliked the fact that the game forces you to collect a particular collectible in order to exchange it for health upgrades. Progressing the main story without exploring gives you the bare minimum collectibles to have enough health to finish the game, but tying such an important upgrade to a single collectible could definitely annoy someone.


The iconic whip has multiple uses and its well integrated in the gameplay

At its core, The Great Circle is a first-person adventure and stealth game with some elements of third-person shooting and some puzzles. The first person almost ruined the game, and even if I can understand why the developers decided to follow this strange route, in retrospect it was definitely a bad idea. The first person takes away dynamism from the gameplay, limiting the field of view and the movement of the player character. Nothing feels fluid, and seeing through Indy's eyes is not as great as seeing Jones doing things. The combat is subdivided into stealth gameplay when Jones is hidden and melee-gunfighting when he is discovered. The first person works in stealth, where the action is slow and deliberate. Indy can throw objects to attract the enemies in specific areas and hit them for an insta-kill from behind while equipping a melee weapon that breaks after some uses. It's barebones but works. On the other hand, when Indy is discovered, he can beat enemies down and avoid their punches or use his revolver or a firearm of a fallen enemy. The fistfights are slow, and the movements feel not fluid at all, and shooting is well done, but it attracts more people to your position, and the ammo is always scarce. Indy is easily overrun when fighting against multiple enemies, which is correct since he isn't a real fighter, but on the other hand, the action gameplay in all its elements is barebones, and it's definitely the weakest point of the game. It's obviously not the focus of the developers, but this doesn't excuse a sloppy execution.

Luckily the game works much better when you're not fighting. There are few types of secondary activities: side quests and minor mysteries to solve that can be picked up while exploring. Most of them require the resolution of at least a puzzle. Puzzles are rather easy but varied and constitute a nice distraction without being overly invasive. The most complex and inventive puzzles are relegated to the main quest, and some of them also have a simple hint system available. Every puzzle is organically tied to the world and teaches to the player a little fun story or some details on the environment and the story, which is always well received. There are few side quests for every map, but they are all masterfully crafted and are set in special environments just built for the side quest. I finished them all; they are fun and don't break the flow of the game in any way.

ARCHAEOLOGY MADE FUN


Half of this game it's just a postcard

This game can be played by anyone with minimal Indiana Jones knowledge. It works as a standalone adventure with only a few details linked to the movies, so it can be approached even by people that know only that Indy is a cool guy with a whip and a hat that explores the world. Obviously the game is immensely more fun if you've seen the movies, and it really shines as an interactive movie. Even if the basic gameplay is barebones and just average, everything else is just stellar and really builds up a great experience. It's just like The Elder Scrolls: the main gameplay is broken or bare-bones, but the games are a blast to play. The game has a good length, but I wished that it could have just a little more secondary missions. I just hope it can have a sequel where the developers can learn from their mistakes and develop a well-balanced product that probably will be a 10/10 masterpiece. Until then we have The Great Circle: an imperfect but extremely engaging game that will give you the urge to rewatch all the Indiana Jones movies. Or at least this is the effect that it had on me.

FINAL SCORE: 8/10

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CURRENTLY PLAYING
- Bully: Scolarship Edition - Wii
- The Secret of Monkey Island - Special Edition - PC

It's glad to be back after some months!

Bully is great; it has a contained but flavorful open world, and its humor is on par with its bigger cousin, GTA. I have just started chapter 3.

Monkey Island is really an old game mechanically, but it can still be fun, especially with its writing. I have just started it, so I don't have anything else to say.

Daily Challenge - 2026-09-27
Score: 191 / 300
🟦🟩🟩 🟪 = 68 | P | The Evil Within
🟪🟩🟩 🟦 = 75 | S | Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
🟥🟪🟥 🟩 = 48 | R | Severed Steel

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play