I beat Animal Well on the Steam Deck while I was out of town. I’ve heard high praise for this one, and while I liked it quite a bit, I think I’m less impressed than the buzz I heard. When you see credits, there’s just enough of a tease that there’s more to come that you know it’s out there to find, but toward the end of the game, some of the challenges and traversal were just tedious enough to dissuade me from finding them. So if there’s some excellent stuff still to find after beating it, and I’m sure there is, they probably should have put their best foot more forward than that.

I finished the Fallout TV show, and damn it, that’s the most effective commercial for a video game I’ve ever seen. I immediately picked up the only mainline game that I haven’t finished before, which is Fallout 2. That game is pretty rough at the start, because it doesn’t give you a gun for several hours, so if you spec’d your character for anything but melee weapons, combat is tough and a bit tedious. I got over the hump though, and it’s just what the doctor ordered.

My wife and I have been playing Lorelei and the Laser Eyes. We love escape rooms, and this game plays out just like a really big escape room. Or, if you’re not familiar with them, it plays like Resident Evil 1 without the zombies. The biggest point of frustration has been that there’s no “back” or “cancel” button. All four face buttons do the same thing, and when you’re going in and out of menus, you just have to navigate to the back button in the menu to go out one level. I hope that changes. It seems to be firmly designed for mobile, but on a controller, it’s quite slow. Other than that, the puzzles have been fantastic.

I have been working on my backlog so I blew the dust off of my copy of Bravely Default for 3DS. I am so impressed by the art style of this game, and the 3D effects really add to the sense of immersion. If you’re a fan of old school jrpgs I would encourage you to give it a shot. It gives me FF9 vibes. I’m only a few hours in but so far I’m really enjoying it.

Long live the 3ds!!