Game Log

Playing

Title	Notes
Infinity Nikki	Everything in it is adorable. The quality makes you ask "this is free?" I've spent money on it, obviously. Daily ritual.
Golf It!	Had zero interest, and yet it hath become a daily ritual.
Crimson Desert	Since I sent my PC in for repairs I can't be bothered to launch it. The load this thing puts on a PC scares me.
Chivalry 2	I get an unreasonable urge to hit the battlefield before bed, so most nights it's two or three matches plus a bot game, then sleep.
TBH: Task Bar Hero	Picked it up on a recommendation. Cleared everything once, but I've left it sitting there, dreaming of the cosmic items I still haven't seen.
Melvor Idle	I keep wondering how long I'll keep this up, and I still launch it at least three times a day. You can actually play it on your phone too.
Crime Simulator	Thieving really is fun. I still play it solo now and then. I'm unstoppable at this point.

Up next

Title	Notes
Beacon Pines	A cute furry game, but it's in English…
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II	I loved the first one so I was looking forward to this, but I meant to play it on stream and never streamed while in mourning — and now I've lost the moment to start.
Return of the Obra Dinn	Bought it on a recommendation.
Still Wakes the Deep	Because the Japanese localization is in Kyushu dialect.

Now and then

Title	Notes
Wild Assault	A TPS for furries. My go-to when I want to shoot something. The systems are apparently close to the original Battlefield. Haven't reinstalled it since the PC repair.
MECCHA CHAMELEON	Mostly with friends. When I get the itch to show off a hiding spot I'll drop into public lobbies too.

When invited

Title	Notes
Cursed Companions	The healing spells are lines like “I love you,” “I like you,” “it's okay,” and curing poison takes “marry me” or “hold me” — so depending on who you play with, you get to witness quite a scene. At some point a sobering calm arrives and you wonder why you are surrounded by grown men saying these things to you. I'm sure they feel exactly the same.
Green Hell	Split the roles — a cook, a plant expert, an armorer and so on — and it gets comfortable enough that you could settle down for good. I'm also thinking of playing Story Mode solo.
VRChat	I've played too many better-looking games for this to move me. Would buying a headset change everything?

Played

PC

Title	Notes
100 hidden birds	A simple game where you just find the birds hidden in a picture. I get the urge for this kind of thing now and then.
7 Days to Die	Honestly I don't get the appeal beyond looting buildings. It just makes me want to play Minecraft.
A Game About Digging A Hole	You dig a hole. That's it.
A Little to the Left	Sorting and tidying, irresistible if you're a type A. I'm not type A, mind you.
Abiotic Factor	Bought it because my fave invited me. This world is rough on your own.
Assassin's Creed Origins	Rebought it on PC for a second run. All achievements unlocked.
Atomic Heart	The Russian version of BioShock Infinite. But it falls short of BioShock. That's about the size of it.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden	Like The Witcher 3 crossed with The Medium. A decent amount of content. Fair warning: there's next to no guide info unless you look in English.
Braid, Anniversary Edition	Few games work your brain this hard… A terrifying masterpiece — whoever made this is far too clever.
Chernobylite	Finished it, but I don't especially like it. People who do seem to love the story too. Not buying the sequel.
Chivalry 2	I have found that chivalry means fighting dirty. A gentleman's sport of screaming war cries and clanging swords on the battlefield. If a teammate screams, you scream back — it's manners. Small player base, so I keep seeing the same names.
Crime Scene Cleaner	Love it. Please keep adding stages forever. I also liked that your own house gets a little fancier every time you clear one.
Crime Simulator	The world changes once you get a gun. It suddenly becomes fun. But the robots at the AI research center make it rough. I think the fastest way to level is to get someone experienced to host a server and just tag along. I ended up being the one leading, so leveling was a struggle.
Cursed Companions	The healing spells are lines like “I love you,” “I like you,” “it's okay,” and curing poison takes “marry me” or “hold me” — so depending on who you play with, you get to witness quite a scene. At some point a sobering calm arrives and you wonder why you are surrounded by grown men saying these things to you. I'm sure they feel exactly the same.
DEATHLOOP	I loved the Dishonored series, so I bought this certain I'd love a game from the same studio. Sure enough, I did. But I still like Dishonored more.
Dishonored	Death of the Outsider was my first and I loved it, so I went all the way back to the original. Loved that too, naturally.
DORONKO WANKO	Become a Pomeranian, fling mud everywhere, and wreck the house~
Elin	If you were hooked on Elona, you will be hooked on this. The definition of a game that melts time. I mean to pick it back up at full release, but knowing I have a save with nearly 200 hours on it makes me hesitate to hit New Game.
Enshrouded	A good game, but I can't tell you what its hook is. It has everything, and everything is roughly good. Recommended if you like building. Still haven't played it multiplayer.
Eternal Return	Black Survival made 3D with action added on top. I'd really love it if they brought Black Survival back too.
Firewatch	I heard it was a chill game; it was not that chill. Teenage girls hurl abuse at you, you find a body, the forest burns…
Fresh Start Cleaning Simulator	An easy job that only asks you to clean up dirty places.
Gamble With Your Friends	A gambling game I got gifted. Everyone goes bankrupt together — friends to the death.
Golf It!	Had zero interest, and yet it hath become a daily ritual. Just right for chatting with friends while you play.
Green Hell	During a sale I got invited with "it's 280 yen, let's all buy it," and while I was dragging my feet, it dropped to around 257 yen after the sale ended — I bought it feeling smug. Hungry and low on health -> gotta find food -> while looking for food you run out of stamina -> sleep -> you're hungry again when you wake up. You get trapped in that endless negative loop, so solo on Normal is rough. In multiplayer you can split roles and live a reasonably comfortable survival life, but the goal of this game is to escape the island… and everyone's fully planning to settle down for good… The mod that raises the player count is thoughtfully made, and its steps were easy to explain even to people who aren't comfortable with PCs, which was a big help.
Grim Dawn	Sometimes you just crave a hack-and-slash like this. While I had it running, a gracious "play PoE" arrived in my mentions.
Hatred	A brutal game where you play a psychopathic old man and simply go around killing whoever is nearby. It has a core fanbase, and apparently there's even a first-person mod. In the isometric view you snag on walls constantly, which makes it awkward to play.
Heavy Rain	I like The Dark Pictures series, so I figured I'd probably like this. I did.
How to Fish	A stupid game. Everyone beats up the fish you catch and sells it to an NPC. Repeat. Later on a gambling table gets added and it turns into a plain gambling game.
inZOI	The Korean version of The Sims 4. I'm saving a proper playthrough for the full release, so I've barely touched it. Apparently linking the phone app lets you build an avatar from a photo of your face and add 3D furniture.
KARMA: The Dark World	A psychological thriller that stays gloomy the whole way through. Not really to my taste.
Lethal Company	Bought it because my fave invited me. People keep inviting me to R.E.P.O. and Mimesis and other games that seem to play about the same, but isn't Lethal Company fine? So I haven't bought them.
Little Witch in the Woods	Bought it for the cute pixel art. It was early access at the time, so the Japanese translation was a mess — the heroine would suddenly talk like a man, then like an old person, character all over the place — and trekking down to the basement alchemy spot every single time got tedious, so I stopped. I wonder if the full release changed any of it.
LOLLIPOP CHAINSAW RePOP	I'd played the pre-remake version, so I bought this for nostalgia. Cheerleaders and chainsaws really do suit a lollipop. And hearing Kenichi Suzumura as Nick again is funny all over.
Melvor Idle	An idle game. Leave it mining coal, leave it chopping wood, and until you get auto-healing, watch over your auto-battles. That's how you grow, little by little.
Metro 2033 Redux	Exodus was good, so I picked this up too. Thank you to whoever made the fan Japanese translation mod.
Metro Exodus	You only hear the protagonist in the opening and the loading-screen recaps, but just knowing Masaki Terasoma voices him was exciting. One of those silent-protagonist games. As good as its reputation.
Missing Translation	Free, has achievements, so I figured why not. Three kinds of light puzzle game, 25 each.
Moonglow Bay	A nicely judged fishing game. It opens with your partner dying out of nowhere, but it's a chill game. Less fishing than commercial fishing, really. I lost count of how many times I dozed off.
No Place Like Home	Fresh Start Cleaning Simulator with farming bolted on. Honestly the UI is unhelpful, or at least confusing — I didn't notice the area attack or the suction-range upgrade until near the end. There are also bugs: spots where you can walk into walls, trash you can't suck up. Did it need combat? Growing crops has little point beyond upgrades, so later on I planted the bare minimum and only collected eggs and milk when I needed them. Expanding rooms and decorating them with furniture barely feels necessary either. Why does collecting items while facing a wall indoors let me grab a mysterious axe? And you can only grab it, not collect it, so there's nothing to be done. A rough-around-the-edges game that still satisfies the urge to clean by letting you smash trash heaps and suck them up, over and over.
Once Human	Hooked for a week or two. If you get to play this much for free, it's a good game. Chat flies past constantly, but I made no friends.
Orwell: Keeping an Eye On You	A mouse-only game where you pore over the articles and web pages on screen. It has multiple endings, apparently, but replaying is quietly a drag. It leaves you thinking about the surveillance state.
Palia	Found it while wishing for an online version of a cozy Story of Seasons-style life sim. Played out everything early access had and ran out of things to do, so I stopped. Looks like it fully released, so I'll come back someday.
Path of Exile	Played one season, invited by the creature whose only cry is "play PoE." Haven't touched it since my PC broke. I don't dislike it, but somehow Grim Dawn pulls at me more. Strange.
PAYDAY 2	If you invite me, I'll rob a bank with you. Would I play it alone? Not really. That's the level of interest.
Portal	Saw someone say you can't call yourself a gamer without playing this, panicked, and bought it. It was an incredible game.
Portal 2	The first was incredible, so I bought the second. Incredible.
PowerWash Simulator 2	I played the first through PS Plus, so I bought the sequel. The achievements are softer than the first, but Steam folds the DLC achievements in, so 100% is rough. Someone told me "this is a game for people who are already unwell!" — it's the other way around. Playing it leaves you too much room to think, and that's what makes you unwell.
Prey	Bought it thinking "oh, the studio behind Dishonored, which I love." Honestly I'm bad with games set in space, but I love the systems, so I liked it quite a lot. You do get extremely lost, though.
Profit Sea Incremental	A clicker game. I dozed off every single time I launched it.
Rainbow Six Siege X	Started because my fave invited me. It's hard. I have no motivation.
Ralph and the Blue Ball	A light hidden-object click game. Apparently based on a true story.
Ravenous Devils	If you know the film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, this will make you go “oh!” It's that exact barbershop, bought by a different psychopath couple and flipped into a tailor's and an eatery. Long live human flesh. The cat is very capable.
Refind Self: The Personality Test Game	Gifted it at my faves, then played it myself. Comparison code: G9tV_dyEJ_mYzd
SCHiM	Stylish, and the atmosphere is nice, but honestly I don't think it's a game you play on PC. Makes me incredibly sleepy.
Scene Investigators	Bought it expecting systems like the studio's previous game; it was something else entirely and I cried. Nothing rewarding to explore, and brutally hard deduction.
Sengoku Dynasty	Did everything early access allowed, felt satisfied, and graduated. The full release apparently lets you pass to the next generation now, but honestly there aren't many building types and I don't feel like playing more. Might be fun in multiplayer.
Sizeable	You just poke around a 3D diorama, hunt down three stone pillars, and set them in the corners. A puzzle game, essentially. The difficulty is nicely judged and you can clear the normal stages with no hints. The hidden stages I couldn't work out without googling. All achievements unlocked.
Smash Hit Museum	It's an incremental game, and yet unlocking the next fossil somehow pushes its price above what you can actually earn — an insulting bit of balancing. Increment, would you.
SOMA	My fave gifted it to me out of nowhere, so I finished it. I saw the ending coming, but that is a depressing one.
Strange Horticulture	Bought it on vibes; turns out you actually have to read carefully to progress. Multiple endings mean replays, and replaying is a draaag.
Storyteller	This one has a wonderful system. Story as puzzle. I want more stages.
Styx: Shards of Darkness	An Assassin's Creed–style stealth game starring a goblin. I personally liked it a lot. I haven't played the previous game, so I only half get how the story connects, but it was a good game and I plan to buy the sequel when it goes on sale. Styx insults you every time you die and there are plenty of parodies, so for all its story it never gets too serious — just the right mood.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim	A hundred hours in and the quests still aren't finished — a terrifying game. Everything they say about it is true. I meant to add mods once I got bored, but never got around to it.
The Looker	A parody of The Witness. Word of mouth kept alluding to the ending, so I played it. Ah… I see.
The Outlast Trials	Bought it because a real-life friend invited me. The frustration of not being allowed to kill your enemies.
The Painscreek Killings	You explore a whole town and solve mysteries. I love exploration games like this — a sprawling escape room. The second game turned into a completely different thing and I despaired.
The Planet Crafter	My fave gifted it, so the two of us played 11 hours. The same thing over and over — pure busywork. I don't think I'll ever launch it again. Might be more fun with five people.
The Sims 4	Installed the lewd mods, threw orgies, and eventually the rhythmic hip motion started making me sleepy, so I retired. I own a fair few DLCs, so I do want to play it properly one day.
The Talos Principle	A first-person philosophical puzzle game. The philosophy was too strong and I wasn't listening at all. I just solved puzzles. I think Portal fans will like it.
The Wandering Village	Bought it on a sudden craving for a city builder. Then realized city building isn't for me.
The WereCleaner	English only, but anyone will get it even if they can't read English. A free game you can finish in about 30 minutes if you're not chasing achievements.
The Witness	So this is the maddest puzzle game there is… I can't say anything other than that it's incredible. Whoever made this is too clever. If anyone can 100% it with no hints, I'd like to kneel before them.
Train Station Renovation	An easy job that only asks you to clean and renovate train stations. I bought it starved for a cleaning game, but I didn't want the renovation part, so the fun and the grind cancel out to zero.
Unheard - Voices of Crime	Solve mysteries with nothing but audio. I think the system is excellent, but I wish they'd sweated the details more. If a door is left open, you should hear more of the next room.
Wild Assault	A TPS for furries. My go-to when I want to shoot something. The systems are apparently close to the original Battlefield.
gogh: Focus with Your Avatar	Can you even call this a game…? It's a focus app. Decorating the room is fun. Please add more furniture.
Agatha Christie - Murder on the Orient Express	Mediocre as a game. I fully intended to see it through, but I got as far as the film goes and lost interest.
Infinity Nikki	Everything in it is adorable. The quality makes you ask "this is free?" I've spent money on it, obviously. Daily ritual.
Not Monday Cafe	It's meant to idle at the bottom of your screen, but I couldn't idle at all. I had it running at full tilt. Apparently it links with Twitch, but I don't do chat streams, so there's been no use for that yet. Cute art.
Silent Cleaning	A free cleaning game put out by Kao. As product advertising, I think it's a great move.
TBH: Task Bar Hero	Picked it up on a recommendation. Cleared everything once, but I've left it sitting there, dreaming of the cosmic items I still haven't seen.
Urban Myth Dissolution Center	My fave desperately wanted someone to talk about it with and gifted it to me. I understand exactly what they meant now.
MECCHA CHAMELEON	The chameleon game everyone's playing. Straightforwardly fun. Reasonable on both price and playtime.
Monster Hunter Wilds	I was expecting a straight upgrade on World/Iceborne, you know… It just made me want to go back to World.
Whisper of the House	Very cute and very good. It quietly turns horror at points, and the pixel-art maps are meticulously built. Plenty of hidden content too. First time in a while I felt I'd bought a good game.

PS4, PS5

Title	Notes
Alone in the Dark	More fun than I was expecting. I want more games like this. Exploring is a joy.
Assassin's Creed II	I wanted to start from the first, but it wasn't on the store. Played II through Revelations via the Ezio Collection.
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood	Same as above.
Assassin's Creed Revelations	Same as above.
Assassin's Creed III	The remastered version. Liberation is bundled in too.
Assassin's Creed Rogue	The remastered version. I meant to play the entire Assassin's Creed series, but the Shadows backlash soured me on it and I retired here.
Assassin's Creed Origins	This is where the modern-day protagonist changes. The systems change too. But I like that. I got an education in Egyptian mythology.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey	My first Assassin's Creed. This is what hooked me. I love Kassandra. I got an education in Greek mythology.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	The moment you're a Viking you're not an assassin anymore. See you in Valhalla. I got an education in Norse mythology.
Assassin's Creed Mirage	Back to the roots. Less content than Origins through Valhalla, and properly built around sneaking.
Battlefield V	My first and last Battlefield.
Biomutant	I had such high hopes before release. But once I played it, I couldn't build a furry character I actually liked, the Japanese was off, and the samey maps deflated me. I did see it through to the end, and I kept hoping for a big update because surely there was room to improve — and then it stopped being talked about at all…
Carto	Piece maps together like a puzzle and go adventuring. Cute art, warm and good.
Coral Island	Like Story of Seasons plus Stardew Valley. Put about 150 hours into it on PS, then stalled agonizing over who to marry…
Cult of the Lamb	A game with the vibe of Happy Tree Friends. It didn't hold me for long…
DAVE THE DIVER	A good game, but my PS stopped turning on partway through.
Days Gone	A good game about surviving the end of the world on a motorcycle. It picked up players through PS Plus and calls for a sequel grew, but the developers reportedly said something like "you all played it for free, so there's no money for a sequel."
Detroit: Become Human	The best of the playable-movie games. It stays with you enough that spotting one of the actors who modeled for it in a film makes you go "oh!" I keep meaning to wipe my memory and start over, and it's been sitting there for years. The memories haven't faded nearly enough…
Dishonored 2	Death of the Outsider was good, so I played this one too.
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider	It was on the Game Catalog so I tried it, and it turned out to be exactly my thing. It's what set me off digging through the studio's other games.
Dying Light	Bought it for the parkour. zombies scary.
Dying Light 2 Stay Human	I played the first, felt obliged to play the second, so I did.
FOAMSTARS	Splatoon but foam. Chill, not kill. People invited me to play together at launch and then nobody actually did. What was that about.
FORSPOKEN	An open world I had high hopes for before release. I regretted buying it. Nothing rewarding to explore — a map that just scatters the same element around. A story that's heavy without ever moving you. All it has going for it is good graphics and a cute cat.
Ghost of Tsushima	I think all I ever said while playing was "the graphics are good." I want to say "honor died on the beach." Fundamentally a good game, but I object to the character names. Nobody back then would name a child Yuna — it means a bathhouse courtesan.
GYLT	I wasn't expecting much, but both the gameplay and the story were quite good.
Horizon Zero Dawn	Went in thinking machines aren't really my thing, and it went past my expectations. Breaking parts off machine beasts is fun. But Aloy isn't to my taste. I never did buy the sequel.
Judgment	The story was good, but I personally don't like the Yakuza series, so the side quests and the events around town didn't do much for me… A series I'll never touch again.
Killer Frequency	You never see the scene — calls come in and you picture what's happening and give instructions — which reminded me of the film The Guilty. At first I thought there wasn't much to actually do and it might get boring, but more of the building gradually opens up to explore, the shape of the case comes into focus, and I enjoyed the back half.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance	Bought it after hearing it recreates medieval Bohemian life so faithfully it gets used as teaching material. A bow with no crosshair. Near-certain death if three enemies surround you. Nights so dark you can't walk without a torch (at max brightness). And the thrill of burglary, where you have to strip completely naked or the clink of your armor wakes the residents. Pickpocketing and breaking into houses were the best parts. Of course I bought the second one.
LEGO Jurassic World	The LEGO games are secretly great. Packed with parody, a fun story, and mostly a loop of collecting bricks and building whatever you need to progress. I'd played the Jurassic Park chapters on my phone, so nostalgia was part of why I bought it. A decent amount of content.
Lies of P	Bought it for the concept, but soulslikes aren't for me. Never cleared it.
MADiSON	Got a craving for horror and landed here. Properly horror. Enemies just spawn while you're exploring, so avoid it if you have a bad heart. It genuinely got me about twice.
The Medium	Dishonored or something had a section where a mirror in your hand shows the past while you move back and forth with the present, and I wanted to know if other games were built on crossing between two worlds, so I played this. Not quite what I pictured, but fine on its own terms. The story wasn't really to my taste, though.
PowerWash Simulator	I love cleaning games like this. Apparently the second one is out, so I plan to buy it.
Marvel's Spider-Man	Picked it up wanting to swing around New York. But it wasn't as much my thing as I'd hoped, and I drifted through to the ending and that was that.
THE DARK PICTURES: HOUSE OF ASHES	The third Dark Pictures game. There's a route where you can't escape unless you save a certain character early on, so I played it about three times. The most I've replayed anything in the series.
THE DARK PICTURES: LITTLE HOPE	The second Dark Pictures game. My least favorite story in the series.
THE DARK PICTURES: MAN OF MEDAN	Found it looking for playable-movie games. This series is the good stuff. Man of Medan has that great touch where a woman's ghost flickers into view for an instant as the camera switches. I want to play the whole series, but apparently the fourth one alone never got a Japanese release… the demand is right here…
The Sexy Brutale	You loop the same day over and over, investigating what's happening throughout the mansion, preventing murders and gathering information. One I'd genuinely recommend to people.
The Sinking City	I know nothing about Cthulhu, but the open world drew me in. Finished it none the wiser.
Tchia	Wasn't expecting much, but I was starved for an open world so I played it. A masterpiece beyond my expectations. The soul-jump ability is great.
THIEF	Found it while starved for something Assassin's Creed-ish. Map exploration is reasonably satisfying. But a loading screen every time you move between areas is a drag. Otherwise I mostly liked it.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus	I wanted a game where you get to shoot people. Heads do come off. I'm not that interested in the series itself, so I haven't played the others.
Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection	The bundle of Drake's Fortune, Among Thieves, and Drake's Deception. I'd finished all three Tomb Raider games and came here looking for something similar.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End	Figured I might as well complete the series, so I bought it. I played them all back to back and now I can't tell which is which.
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy	I'm sure I played it, but I remember nothing… wait. Did I actually not play it…?
Immortals Fenyx Rising	People called it a Breath of the Wild ripoff, but I had no plans to play Breath of the Wild, so I bought this. An open world set in Greek myth. The puzzle stages scattered everywhere are fun. A good one — the kind that makes you go "yes, this is how an open world should be!" Apparently people complain the name is hard to remember. True, you won't get it in one go.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	Bought it wanting a vast open world. After I'd cleared everything including the DLC, my sister told me "streamers who play this usually vanish partway through because the game is so long." Finish it, cowards.
Watch Dogs: Legion	Haven't played the other games in the series. About what you'd expect from a Ubisoft open world. I was drawn in by the idea of building a resistance from people you recruit off the street, but not much of it stayed with me.
The Quarry	I love The Dark Pictures series, so I was looking forward to this before it even released. Another playable movie. With these I always play the first run however I like, then go for the everyone-survives route on the second.
Grand Theft Auto V	Picked it up because it's popular, but the sluggish movement never sat right with me and it didn't stick. When I went online, some bald guy who farms beginners latched onto me, and I stubbornly refused every mercy option, lured him to a tennis court and challenged him there. I lost, got taunted, the end. Bastard.
God of War	I was starved for an open world so I picked it up. All I remember is going "what?!" at the ending. Still haven't bought the sequel.
Cyberpunk 2077	At launch it froze partway through and was unplayable, and there was that whole refund uproar, but I didn't refund — I waited and kept the faith. Platinumed it, Phantom Liberty included. Collected every ending. Played through about five times. I think it's the game I've sunk more of my life into than any other. If only the North American build's detachable d*ck had been an option over here…
Dragon Quest Builders 2	I'd never played a single Dragon Quest game, but the building materials looked cute so I bought it — and got thoroughly hooked. The story is wonderful. Building is fun. All of it was good. Above all Malroth was such a good character that I spent a while trawling pixiv for fan works. To every artist drawing Malroth × Builder (m/f): thank you… thank you…
Tropico 6	A game that teaches you being a dictator takes a corresponding amount of intelligence. My adviser's lavish praise was the only thing holding me together.
What Remains of Edith Finch	If you like escape-room-ish games you'll probably like this. I expected more horror; it isn't that scary. It's more frightening in the sense that it might drive you slightly mad.
Hogwarts Legacy	My Harry Potter viewing is permanently stuck at Goblet of Fire, but I wanted to play the game, so I bought it. The map is rewarding to explore and it was a very good open world. It even has housing, which moved me. Collected every collectible, cleared every side quest, ran out of things to do, done. I got sorted into Ravenclaw.
BioShock	I loved Infinite, so I went back for the earlier games. I meant to push for the platinum, but Hard was beyond me. Too difficult. The enemy muttering you overhear before a fight is addictive.
BioShock 2	Same as above.
BioShock Infinite	I'd wanted to play it ever since watching a Let's Play years ago. The Japanese dub pairs Keiji Fujiwara with Miyuki Sawashiro. Stepping into the sky-city of Columbia for the first time is genuinely stunning. The floating city is far too beautiful. I want to live there.
Moonlighter	A Mystery Dungeon-style roguelike. Gather items in the dungeon, run a general store.
Monster Hunter Rise	Next to World/Iceborne the quality tells you it was made for the Switch, and I lost interest before clearing it.
Red Dead Redemption 2	I got the urge for a vast open world. The opening snowy mountains are a little irritating because you move so slowly, but past that it's fun the whole way through. The hunting especially is remarkable. The skinning animation impresses you at first, then starts to feel like wasted time as the hours pile up, and you end up leaning hard on the trick that skips it. About a year later the urge hit again and I went for the compendium, and I still haven't filled in the animal entries. A terrifying game.
Black Desert Console	Played it for maybe five years and spent over a million yen. My fave retired, so I quit alongside them. Also — I know the operator is Korean, but the official game account has no business weighing in on the Takeshima dispute; of course that was going to blow up. I'd like my money back.

Switch

For some reason I lose interest in Switch games before I ever finish them.

Title	Notes
GOODBYE WORLD	Cute pixel art. Heavy story. Leaves you going "ah… life."
Hokko Life	An Animal Crossing knockoff. But the characters are just subtly not cute. Got bored in a few days.
NEEDY GIRL OVERDOSE	Bought it because everyone was talking about it, but eh… the art is cute, that's all.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons	Bought it for the Happy Home Paradise DLC more than the base game. The crafting is nice, but tools breaking constantly got old…
Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book DX	Bought it to try the Atelier series, but it didn't stick at all. Not for me.
Splatoon 3	My first Splatoon. Put a decent amount of time in. Cleared Hero Mode completely, and ground Tableturf for the plates. But the main PvP and Salmon Run didn't grab me…
Vivid Knight	Was hooked for a while but never cleared it. Isn't this a bit too luck-based?
Pokémon Scarlet	Lost interest right before Victory Road… haven't booted it in ages. It lives by my pillow in eternal sleep mode.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe	Bought it because someone asked me to play together, but I've launched it fewer times than I have fingers on one hand.
Rune Factory 4 Special	The only physical copy I ever bought. I think I put a good amount of time in. Saving the dragon felt like the point where the endgame content started, and that's where I stopped.
Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy Deluxe Edition	I used to love the Layton series so much. Haven't booted it since partway through. My sister had a Layton doujinshi with a panel imagining what if the Professor were bald under that hat, captioned "Tsurupika-ratt" — a pun on the Japanese for shiny-bald. I have never been able to forget it.
Royal Anapoko Academy	My favorite of everything I bought on Switch, and the one I sank the most time into. Recommended if you want to see a cool grandma. Fairly unusual systems.

Other

Title	Notes
Call of Duty Mobile	Started it because PUBG had moved on without me, then quit right away.
Eternium	A hack-and-slash. The mobile controls felt great and I put real time into it. The link goes to the PC version, but I don't think it plays well anywhere but mobile.
Minecraft	The urge comes back periodically. My body no longer accepts it without mods. I knew someone who dropped out of university twice over this game, so honestly I consider it a terrifying one.
Potion Permit	Bought it to play on the Tokyo–Kyushu ferry and haven't opened it since.
PUBG Mobile	Played it endlessly while unemployed. Tried the PC version too, but the controls never felt right.
Stardew Valley	The mobile version, foisted on me by my sister while I was unemployed. Got caught dating everyone at once, was publicly denounced, and locked out of marriage for a year — then right as I finally reached the wedding it bugged out and stopped working. No way to transfer the save, so I retired.
Guardian Tales	Started for the pixel art, stayed for the story and the pile of references to other games. Quit once the enemies got too strong to push past.
Black Survival	The mobile version was just called Black Survival. The predecessor to Eternal Return. So dead that if you and a friend queued on a count of three you were guaranteed the same match. The systems always felt familiar to me — is there really nothing else like it?
Black Desert Mobile	Practically a different game from the PC and console versions. Same setting, but parts of the story differ and even the class names are different.

Memories

Title	Notes
Super Mario 64	When I say Mario I mean 64. I actually don't much like the side-scrolling ones.
Diddy Kong Racing	I liked this more than Mario Kart, but I've never met anyone who knows what I'm talking about. I'm choosing to believe the scene in The Super Mario Bros. Movie where they drive out of the Kong area is a nod to this and not Mario Kart.
Donkey Kong Country	Played 1 through 3 on the Super Famicom. Never once finished any of them.
Pokémon (Red through Black/White)	Played every entry up to Black/White, but I can't bring myself to keep up anymore. Ruby/Sapphire was my favorite.
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky	I think I passed 250 hours. I love the episode with the genius Igglybuff.
Boku no Natsuyasumi	Played it on the PS2 every summer vacation. Staying indoors all summer to feel summer inside a game — deeply unhealthy. Then Dad lent the PS2 to someone and it never came back.
Fossil Fighters	I barely remember it, but I remember loving it.
One Piece: Niji no Shima Densetsu	Bought for me as an add-on so the WonderSwan I'd gotten for the game below wouldn't go to waste. I maintain this was the forerunner of Monster Strike. It was fun, though I have no memory of whether I finished it. I only know One Piece from this era, so I'm lost on anything current.
Inuyasha: Kagome no Sengoku Nikki	I had a WonderSwan — that most obscure of consoles — bought for me solely for this game. And then it demanded you boot it morning, noon, and night for a full week to see every event: a pointless real-time system, and brutal for a kid. Still, I remember grinding through it many times over. After the ending, examining the well no longer takes you to the Sengoku era, leaving you to reread your diary in your room forever. A sad way to finish.