What Did We Play Yesterday?

The first TOW expansion has been announced. The content will be available after the player leaves planet Monarch and raises the level cap to 25.

My only issue with the Outer Worlds on GamePass is I have an older XBox One and the load times are bad (several minutes, and even saving the game strategically to avoid too many loading areas in a row there's still a notable bit of downtime). I didn't buy the Switch version specifically because of complaints about the load times. I wanted to see the PC version had any performance patches so I grudgingly reinstalled the Epic Games Store Launcher which of course still doesn't work right, and I managed to install and play TWO a whole five minutes without crashing. This doesn't mean anything, I'd need to see at least 30 minutes of uninterrupted play to be convinced. The load times are about the same as XBox for me, but the difference is it's more convenient to document my Corporate Sexymann run, which I still want to do, and take many luscious screenshots.

There is a third, quite distant, option. My partner is a music composer and his rig is fancy and fresh and in that sense it is superior to the my duct-tape chewing-gum alliance I have negotiated on my own PC. However, he is really deep in Assassin's Creed right now and I'm certainly not going to ask him to hand over his PC during the sacred Child Siesta Time so I can play through the Outer Worlds a third time. It would be nice to see if the load times persist, however, just to confirm if this is My Problem or if it is in fact Obsidian's Problem.

Project Kat is a RPGMaker-sytle horror game demo by Leef 6010 that caught my eye early on because I love the genre. I have one beef with this game, and it's that it is an unfinished game but it is not properly labeled as such because the developers wanted feedback. It is not a short game with only one ending, it is a game demo or an incomplete game.

It gets a slight pass because in RPGMaker gamedev culture it is customary to release incremental alpha builds and there is an understanding amongst the player base that most games are actively in development and may never be finished. Nevertheless, there was something about the inclusion of this game in the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality that rubbed me the wrong way (as did the inclusion of any free game demo). I felt like they were farming for ratings. If they were then they certainly succeeded as the game has over 1,000 ratings, which is a rarity for games on Itch.io.

That being said, it's a hell of a good start and I loved every second of what has been developed. Project Kat is polished and compelling and it avoids some of the pitfalls in the genre so far (for me, chasers and jump scares). I love that the main character is a skeptic and I also love how INCREDIBLY creepy it is, this game is genuinely atmospheric and disturbing in the way of Corpse Party and other genre classics. I am really jazzed about this one and look forward to completion, but based on past experiences I don't have any expectations for it being finished any time soon.

Interesting aside, the game was developed in Godot but there is a clear attempt to emulate the RPGMaker interface, even on the start screen. Players familiar with the engine will notice small differences during gameplay. At this point I feel like "RPGMaker-like" transcends the engine, it's about a certain vibe and aesthetic and is much less about the tools used, but I think this is the first time I've seen someone develop this type of game in a completely different engine rather than a similar top-down RPG engine like WolfRPG.

Project Kat has about 45 minutes to an 1 hour and if you are into this type of game at all I recommend checking out the demo or following the project because I think this one is gunna be gud.

Kids by Michael Frei and Mario von Rickenbach is a short interactive animation, or art game. It is weird and compelling and takes about 20 minutes to play.

It's the sort of thing you need to see for yourself, so don't have much to say about this one beyond it is cool and well worth checking out.