Summary for January 2025

Grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize

A woman with long dark hair, wearing a white shirt, sweater vest and khakis, stands with her back to the camera in a dilapidated school hall. There is a flashlight on the ground shining on a humanoid figure in the distance. The overall style is inspired by PlaysStation One, with low-poly models, simple textures and a lot of noise.

Fear the Spotlight is great. It’s a pretty focused, mostly puzzle game with some stealth elements. An interesting take on a particular story that doesn’t do anything drastic, but isn’t afraid to play with tropes and themes.

Not much to say about the next three games. Not bad, above average for sure. I really liked the British post-apocalyptic atmosphere of Hollowbody. Go Home Annie is not only interested in spooky stuff, but in the SCP Foundation itself, much like Remedy’s Control, and that’s fun. I don’t think The Chant is particularly good at criticizing what it wants to criticize, but overall just a solid game.

A platinum blonde woman in a hot pink coat stands near two escalators in a subway station. The whole world is divided: in a circle around the woman, there’s dirty tile floor, some scattered around luggage. Outside the circle, it is rusted metal floor and walls, and large, plant-like torns. The graphics are also very PlayStation-esque.

Sorry We’re Closed does a lot. From its take on survival horror combat (action games where you have to feel powerless), to great visuals, to… dating sim, eh, flavor?.. The story goes places, too. Very good.

Ok, calling PixelJunk Shooter Ultimate a horror game is a stretch, but there are two stages that are clearly horror themed. So, there. It is a twin-stick shooter with an emphasis on physics based puzzles. What happens when you drop water on magma? What if you drop a block on an enemy? Stuff like that. Can be quite challenging, especially bosses, but still very enjoyable.

A small spaceship hovers over the cloudy surface of a planet. There are red lights shining through the clouds, a sun rising above the horizon, and Saturn-like rings hangs around the planet.

On the one hand, Alien: Romulus justifies itself by introducing very interesting character dynamics, and that’s the highest praise a movie in a long-running franchise, where it is a sequel, after prequel, after reboot, can ever get. On the other hand, does it? Why is the neurodivergent character an android? Why is there a CGI You-Know-Who? Do you have to throw direct quotes?

I honestly don’t know if I like the movie or not. It is very beautiful, in that “corporate future is terrible” kind of way. Good acting, minus the aforementioned You-Know-Who. But yeah, maybe the Alien series has said everything there is to say at this point.