Key

I was caught by surprise when I saw a streamer playing this game. I was wondering to myself "how the heck is he playing a mobile game on his computer, and why does it look so different?" Than I looked on Steam, and what do you know? Plague Inc had another release and thus we have Plague Inc: Evolved. So, if you're unfamiliar with this game, well, as I mentioned already, it was originally a mobile game, as far as I can tell anyway. The main goal is to play as a disease whether you're a bacterial disease or a virus or anything later in the game, and you try to wipe out the entire world with your disease. It comes with ways to transmit your disease across countries to how you further develop your disease in order to stay away from the doctors that are trying to make a cure. It's basically for those of us that want to feel like a supreme ruler that has the power to take over the world and cause a complete annihilation of the human race.

It's very fun, and when I had this game on mobile, I enjoyed the comic aspect of it, like the fake news stories that pop up, and the several different ways you can infect and kill all off the humans in different countries, but I also liked how much time I put into the game before I realized that I was basically killing off the entire world. It's a lot of fun in a sick way, but it tickles my fancy for a game in the right way. So naturally, when I found out there was a PC version out there, I had to get it, and my god, I am impressed with how far this game has come since it's debut on mobile. Plague Inc: Evolved is so much better than it's predecessor for all the right reasons. It's much more fluid, the comedy aspect is still there, there's more diseases to mess around with, there's custom scenarios, achievements, and so much more than that. When I got the game for the first time, I was absolutely blown away with how good it ran for a first time install, and instantly, I got into it and played. It's amazing to see a game do so well that was originally a mobile game, because sometimes that effect doesn't happen with some games. Some games don't do that transfer very well, but fortunately, Plague Inc did.

There's multiple youtubers playing this game, but if you'd like to see someone play it the right way, jacksepticeye has a running series of it, and his enjoyment of the game is basically how I would describe the game. He plays it the way I would, so it's nice to watch someone else have the similar play style.

I'm very happy to have found that this game existed, otherwise I would've never known that there was a full fledged PC version with constant updates. It makes the original game that much better, and it continues to get better. Really looking forward to future updates to this game, and will definitely play it some more.

Key

I was originally going to do a "first impressions" entry on Layers of Fear, but then I discovered that the game was actually released this year, so that allowed me to be a little bit more thorough with my review on the game by throwing it into the mix of reviews that I have been doing for 2016 releases.

I'm surprised that I didn't pick this game up upon release, because it's right up my alley. It's a horror game, ffs. More specifically, it's a psychological horror. So, if you're looking for a game that throws monsters or bad guys at you in order to scare you, this won't be the game for you. It's not a jump scare filled horror game, it's meant to be a little bit more slow paced while at the same time, creating a universe in your mind that will give you chills going down your spine. You play the role as a painter, but you come to find out more details about his personal life, his past mistakes, his relationships, while simultaneously going through your mansion of a house and finding more family heirlooms. The twist is that when you walk through a door, don't expect to see the same room behind the door you just went through. Sometimes you'll end up in a room you've seen before, but other times you'll end up in a room that you didn't know existed. It's done really well in the sense that some rooms will react to you stepping foot into them, like a figure will pop up and scare you, thus changing the mood and environment completely, or the game will throw nothing at you. From experience, it's kept me on my toes throughout my time playing, and I've only played about 2 hours so far.

The whole idea behind the game is really well done and unfortunately upon further inspection, the game really didn't do as well as you'd think in terms of critic reviews, but if you look at steam reviews, the people speak very positively about the game. I picked it up for the sheer fact that it was on sale, and the fact that I was itching for another horror game that I can submerge myself into. Granted, I've not touched Alien: Isolation in quite some time, but that's because I grew a little tired of it. At some point I'll go back to it. But this game really scratches that itch that i've been looking for. It's got everything I like in a game. It makes me think instead of just throwing things at me, and it's got a really good story. The cool thing about the story aspect is that it can change based on how you react to certain things that happen in the game. I've not really come across anything that could potentially change the way the game changes, but I can see why it would happen. But at the end of the day, every time I play it, I really get drawn into the story, especially since it's very well narrated and it's not just some straightforward "try to save this person" story, it's much more than that, but I won't spoil it.

Just keep in mind, if this review has interested you at all and you're curious about playing this game, don't expect a horror game that will make you **** your pants at every corner. It's much more than that, and it's why I've come to appreciate the psychological horror genre a lot more and the typical scare your pants off horror games have taken a bit of a back seat. I don't know what else the developer has done besides this game, but if they keep making horror games of this quality, I will be behind them one hundred percent. I look forward to either this game getting a sequel or whatever. I did pick up the DLC along with this, so I'll be interested to see how they plays out, but for the moment, I'm having a damn good time with this game, and I urge you to pick it up if you're interested in being psychologically freaked out.

Key

It's not done very often in this journal or any journal that I make for that matter, but when it happens, I feel it's my duty to do such a thing. What am I talking about? I'm talking about a follow up entry on a topic. I've done it only a few times for things that I feel extremely passionate about, and for a follow up entry to happen, I have to have either differing opinions to a topic, or I feel that more information is necessary to get the point across. Luckily, I'm making this follow up post to expand on my thoughts about Layers of Fear.

So, I'm getting further in this game, and I'm starting to realize how much of a masterpiece this game really is. I'll try to describe why that is without spoiling too much, but if you're not really interested in the slightest of spoilers, feel free to click away from this post. The first post about this game doesn't have any spoilers, so read that one instead. Now that i've warned you, i'm going to continue. Basically, I'm starting to realize a lot about my character, but not enough to say for a fact what the story is about. What I have found out is that my character who is an artist (a painter specifically) has been dealing with signs of schizophrenia. He's seeing things appear in front of him which probably leads to why the environment changes as you walk from room to room, and why some rooms come back after he has "an episode". I'm seeing a lot play out about the emotional crisis that him and his wife have gone through with having a child, which has started to play an important role in the story. I haven't learned a lot about what has happened to his wife or his child, but what I've seen has drawn me in, and I really want to know more. The game has thrown hints as to whether the child is still alive or not, and it's thrown hints as to whether the marriage worked out. What I've gathered so far is that the man is a workaholic, and he's missed some important parts of his child's life, like his 5th birthday for instance, given the fact that I picked up a "5th birthday hat" off the top of a teddy bear, and the story basically acted as though he worked too hard, and missed the birthday. There's multiple times where that type of story progression take place, and it's done so well that you really don't feel like the game is rushing you or pushing things right in your face. Again, it gives you the freedom whether you want to learn about that story or not, and it really does a solid job at creating the environment based on how you react to the story. It gives you multiple directions, and you choose which you want to take, and from what I've noticed, you can sometimes end up back where you started during a certain store progression, without feeling like you missed anything. Though, you have to wonder how the story would have played out had you not taken the path that you did.

I'm really getting immersed into this game, to the point that I want to save the game for when it's dark outside, because I did that last night, and I really felt way more immersed into the game. I think I may plan to do that from now on, though as evident from the fact that I just played this morning, I won't be able to help myself. It's really done well, and the game has really shown what can be done when the developer has a good understanding of what a psychological horror game can offer. Again, don't expect the game to throw things at you just to scare you. A lot of my horrifying experience with the game has simply come from what I feel while I walk through dark hallways and listening to the surrounding environment, whether it's footsteps, or something knocking on the door behind me, or just the stormy weather behind me. I hear there are multiple ways to play through this game, so luckily, I won't have to stop playing it anytime soon, and as I mentioned, there is a DLC story to the game, so i'll be excited to get into that once I discover all the endings for this game. I'm still on my first playthrough, and I already feel like I've missed a few things that I could have done, so that warrants another playthrough right there.

Certainly an exciting release, and probably one of the best horror games I've played this year, for sure.

Black Francis

I saw the grumps play the previous version of plague Inc and it looked like an interesting game. I tried getting a mobile version of it but I couldn't cause it was either not compatible with me cellphone or it costed money. (I don't remember which one)

If it had been released as a digital download for the ps3 I probably would've bought it cause its one of the few PC games that interested me along with Spore and Terraria. Thankfully I at least got Terraria.

__________________
"Hey Kids you got to meet the MIGHTY PIXIES!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbRbCtIgW3A

Key

Terraria is fantastic. I've put about 30 hours into mine until I got a little bored. I could jump into it at any time though and still enjoy it. I tried out Starbound and wasn't too impressed, but Terraria is certainly great.

The Batlord

I need to get back into that. I only played a few hours, but I've already constructed an underground base of operations so that I can safely prepare to build my above ground fortress. It also doubles as a mine. Does everyone else start with digging into the ground before doing anything else, or is that just me? Seems the most logical course of action before you have the resources to build an actual house.

__________________

Key

I do that. But I also begin my underground voyage and the further down I go, I make little camps along the way. Basically I keep going down further, and while I'm doing that, there will be like 5 or 6 camps that I've made so in case I die, I don't have to travel all the way back down.

The Batlord

How far down does it go? I've only gone down as far as the first caverns with enemies.

__________________

Black Francis

I've restarted Terraria a bunch of times cause I've lost my save files so I've gotten pretty good at starting over. The first thing you gotta do is get some iron or gold or platinum and upgrade your pickaxe to dig faster. Then you can upgrade your sword and your armor. At first you don't need to go that deep, what you need to do is explore the surface and look for natural caverns with treasure chest in them and hopefully they'll have a couple of useful accessories in them. Stay away from the jungle and corrupted areas at at first and focus on exploring the normal forest and snow areas. You can get gold or platinum in those areas. After you upgrade your equipment a bit you can start exploring more dangerous areas.

Keep mining for ores until you at least complete a full set of armor of one specific ore because once you have a full set you'll get buff from it. Eventually the 1st monster will appear and come after you. He's a big floating eye so you'll need a bow or a gun or flail, any weapon with a mid range attack. It also helps if you create a wood platform in top of your house to fight him and put some bonfires in them to regenerate HP faster.

__________________
"Hey Kids you got to meet the MIGHTY PIXIES!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbRbCtIgW3A

Key

It's time to do another one of these, and we'll see how my playtime has changed in terms of games that may exist again on this list.

So...as of 9/1/2016, my most played games are as follows:

Team Fortress 2 with 292 hours
Rocket League with 144 hours
Fallout 4 with 78 hours
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth with 75 hours
DC Universe Online with 74 hours
Fallout 3 with 38 hours
RIFT with 35 hours
Dishonored with 28 hours
Borderlands 2 with 28 hours
Torchlight II with 25 hours
The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited with 24 hours
7 Days to Die with 24 hours
Counter Strike: Global Offensive with 22 hours
Star Wars KOTOR with 22 hours

Anything else is below 20 hours so I won't bother posting it. I guess the big difference is not just the hours, but the amount of games I've put a lot of my time into. And y'know what, I don't regret a single minute of it.

Previous list posted 3/17/2015