Bringing back an old tradition of a monster every Friday, a classic is The Phoenix. Lore for the Phoenix goes back well over 500 years to the Greeks and the Egyptians. It varies from culture to culture tho it always agrees it seems that it is a bird. In one such belief it will love exactly 500 years and build a nest where it will die in flames and from those ashes a new baby bird will be born. That will be the one and only Phoenix to exist at any one time.
Other lore thinks that there can be multiple of them and when they die they are simply reborn from the ashes wherever they may be.
Obviously none of these are true but the Phoenix has become a symbol of rebirth and renewal. Many novels and stores also have them at odds with dragons for some reason that I never truly understood myself. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
A Simple Favor starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively is a dark comedy that struggles to let you in on the joke. Don’t let this lead you to believe it is a bad movie, because it is an amazing movie. Anna Kendrick is phenomenal as the Vlogger mom that is just too perfect for her own good.
On the flip side,we have Blake Lively, the bitchy never apologize fuck whoever I want type. She is a pretty horrible mom despite the fact she is doing her best but she is always busy at work, tho she does like to drink a bit too much.
The pair strikes up an unlikely friendship because of their kids being friends at school. This results in an awkward playdate, some nights of drinking and then a death.
When Emily (Blake) once again asks Stephanie (Anna) to pick the kid up from school Emily disappears for days only to be found dead in a lake. This will then lead to an entire quest for Anna to discover the truth behind Emily and her entire life. I won’t spoil it,but it absolutely worth watching. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
The Nameless- Slay dragon is one of those games I wasn’t sure about, but Whisper Games is one of those companies I have always had a great relationship with and I had to take the chance. The Nameless- Slay dragon sits at over 1000 reviews on Steam and is very positive, and with very good reason. The newest Mythic Update has added a ton of content including a new game plus, new professions and so much more.
The game itself is a true RPG. Not just turned-based combat, but a tabletop RPG turned into a video game. Searching for things and talking to people will all increase skills and change outcomes, for better or worse. A bad early game roll had me fighting some trees at level one solo that decimated me, but an early lucky roll let me avoid an early battle with some elves and even got me some high-level items. These are the kind of things any DnD player will tell you create awesome memories.
Another great aspect of this game is the customization of characters. While characters do come with a sort of class given to them, how they develop is up to you. Your magic user can focus on one element or all of them. Do you want your ranger to have a dagger or a bow? Don’t limit yourself, do both if you want. Create a character that can steal items while slamming enemies with a huge axe if you want. I am not saying these are the optimal ways to play the game, but you can do it if you want.
if its a dragon, kill it. or don’t, I’m not your boss
The story itself is also deep, with a world covered in lore to discover. You not only are killing dragons in a world with elves and magic but there is a very good reason for it. The elves aren’t very popular, but again there is a very good reason for it. Most of it also isn’t the typical Elves and Humans are different so they hate each other, it goes back to a time living humans don’t remember but most elves can tell you in detail where it comes from.
With nice graphics, a fantastic story, plenty of replayability, and a price point of just under $20 there is no reason to hold off getting this game. 9/10, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Librarian Simulator on Steam was sent to me by the fine folks over at Nuuvem and Little Giants. For those of you that have followed me for a long time you know I love simulator games like this. This one is actually rough for me to review. I will be honest right now, I did not like this one for a number of reasons.
First and most importantly, I never had any fun with it. The game loop is simple: books get delivered seemingly randomly, you put them on a shelf, and people borrow them. You don’t choose what books are in stock, and sorting them at the start is damn near impossible depending on what gets sent because the variety and how many shelves you have won’t really match up.
It is cool to see real-life books you have read.
Second, you only have two options for gameplay. You can play until you lose, or you can play for 15 days. You never really feel like you are building up a library so much as you are racing against the clock in a race to get as much done as fast as possible or to go as far as possible before it becomes impossible to keep customers happy.
The third thing I didn’t enjoy was simply that there never seemed to be a point I felt like I was doing anything other than doing busy work while playing the game rather than running the library.
Everything I said up until this point however is subjective. The game cost $7, and at that price point (and in early access) the game does look and sound nice. Far better than many games at that price point. Reading Steam reviews the game is also sitting at positive reviews, with many people saying the game is better while using its online co-op and this is honestly true. Having someone to help you sort books and find the customers what they want does make the game more enjoyable.
While for me the game wasn’t fun, the game functions well and is very reasonably priced. I will say it is a 7/10 and many people will find hours of enjoyment, I just was not one of them. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
ndie developer and publisher Legacy Forge is excited to announce the release of a playable PC demo for their upcoming tactical RPG with roguelike mechanics Valor of Man. Available to download now PC via Steam, the Valor of Man demo is your first chance to immerse yourself in the tactical action you can expect when the game launches via Steam Early Access later in 2025.
We’re excited to announce Cast n Chill, a cozy idle fishing game for PC where you explore tranquil lakes, rivers, and oceans. Catch rare fish, upgrade your gear, and reel in legendary catches – all with your loyal pup by your side.
Like Rusty’s Retirement, it can run passively on your desktop or be actively played. Cast n Chill Steam
Even vampires must endure the emotional turbulence of relationships, something players will witness first-hand in Vampire Therapist: Couples Therapy. The brand-new DLC for Little Bat Games’ critically acclaimed debut title is available on Steam today! This expansion builds on the award-winning blend of comedy, history, and real-life therapy techniques that made Vampire Therapist a critical darling.
Players will slip back into the spurred boots of Sam Walls, a reformed cowboy turned accomplished therapist. Sam has his work cut out for him as he seeks to help two vampires, battling with both domestic and personal struggles, as well as social discontentment following their demises during bloody revolutions in France and Iran.
But that’s not all! This juicy new helping of content takes place during the annual Bachfest in Leipzig — home of Johann Sebastian Bach— where a ghost of Leipzig haunts the streets. It’s Sam’s job to track down the troubled soul between therapy sessions.
Vampire Therapist: Couples Therapy will explore themes of revolt, duty to humanity, and the complications that can arise from age gaps – hey, what’s a couple hundred years when you’re in love?
Check out the trailer for Vampire Therapist: Couples Therapy below:
Vampire Therapist’s all-new DLCwill continue the hallmarks of Little Bat Games creations: deep, history-informed writing exploring systemic issues, screwball comedy, academic partnerships, best-in-class voice acting, and stunning artwork. Try your hand at analysing affairs of the heart and purchase today on Steam for £2.49/€2,99/$2.99.
“In a time of political turmoil, we hope Vampire Therapist: Couples Therapy will help players process difficult questions about the citizen’s role in civil society and find a little respite in love and compassion. And if all else fails, we have vampire fart jokes.” said Cyrus Nemati, Creative Director of Little Bat Games.
Shujinkou is an upcoming Dungeon Crawling RPG from Ricegames. It will be available on Steam and PlayStation on February 13th, and the big selling point of this game is that it tells an intricate story about a man named Shu as well as Jin and Kou. You will travel a world full of political intrigue, and real people just going about their lives trying to survive.
The game starts out with you playing as Shu, a retired samurai living with his little sister, Momo, whom he adores. Momo just wants to grow up and make tea. It isn’t long however before this peaceful village is shattered when an Omi attacks killing a villager and Shu is forced out of retirement to protect the village.
If you use the Japanese kana to spell enemy names you get a significant boost in damage
I won’t go into the story too much because there is a lot to cover, but I will say it is a solid story, far better than I ever expected from a game that says it is built to be able to teach you a foreign language, but we will get to that. The combat is built around a turn-based system like many dungeon-crawling RPGs. Every enemy name is given to you as “??” marks which denote how many kanas or syllables their name is. For example cat is “Neko” and in hiragana, this uses the kana Ne and Ko, which I do not know how to type on an English keyboard admittedly but I did find this pretty accurate image. If you are fighting a cat and spell this out however you will receive a significant damage boost permanently.
Now I am no expert on the language, going into this game I didn’t know any of this. The game does however teach you all of this, and at the push of a button you can literally just shut it all off. In fact, the game will ask you at the start if you are even interested. Outside of a few trophies, you aren’t even punished for not learning. The game is perfectly playable without knowing or learning any Japanese.
Another totally optional but awesome thing, the game will remind you to practice writing
This brings me to one last thing, is this game fun to play? As great as the game looks and sounds, it means nothing if it isn’t fun. I am happy to say everything isn’t tossed at you at once. As you explore the dungeons you will come across new kana to learn and the characters will give you explanations of them. Sign boards will teach you sentence structure that you can study or ignore. The menus are in both Japanese and English so there is no guesswork or stress involved.
The game starts out with a message from Julian Rice explaining that he and his team made this game as he helped a family member through a medical issue and sadly she did not live long enough to see it finished. As one of the first people to have seen this message, I am happy to say that Mr. Rice and his team have succeeded in their goal. I won’t say you can fully learn Japanese from this game, no single source will teach you any language. This game will however absolutely give you a solid foundation. The game also succeeds in being a fun and in-depth RPG.
Originally I intended to review this on its merits as a game and as a learning tool separately. Instead, the game is simply a 9/10. What I thought was simply a gimmick turned out to be fantastically built into the game as an optional part of the experience that anyone can enjoy. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Day Shift from 2022 is a sort of horror comedy that doesn’t really manage to succeed at either one of them. What you end up with however is an oddly enjoyable movie.
Jamie Fox plays a vampire hunter that for reasons that quickly becomes obvious has been banned from the official channels of work. He keeps going however through less official channels that pay far less money. When he needs money to keep his daughter from being taken to Florida by his wife,he calls an old friend for help. (It’s Snoop Dogg for the record)
The big man at the Union however isn’t a fan and assigns Jamie Fox a party to make sure he does everything by the books. Dave Franco however while being kind of a sissy (he literally pisses himself multiple times throughout the movie) is easy to be pushed into ignoring certain things to help save Jamie’s family.
The movie honestly is neither funny nor scary, but somehow I found myself cheering for these guys to figure out how to make the money to save Jamie’s family and to rescue them from some vampires that Jamie pissed off.
That being said, outside of the extremely flexible group of vampires that come from a famous group of people who’s French name I won’t even try to spell,it’s really more of just the same. It is still worth watching tho. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
February 6th 2024. Indie developer and publisher rokaplay and publisher Silver Lining Interactive are excited to announce that Sugardew Island – Your Cozy Farm Shop, the cozy farm shop sim, will launch digitally on March 7th for PC via Steam, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. There will also be a charming retail boxed edition launching for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch on March 14th! Xbox X/S will follow shortly after.
Savior Gaming 