Recent reviews by MIDIWalker

Though I picked this up on sale (probably the third platform on which I own it), this is a great first person puzzle platformer well worth the price of admission. The story is a tad overwrought but voiced well. Collecting 100% of the achievements only requires completing every level, and I only got briefly stuck a handful of times. I would have enjoyed more of the difficult levels toward the end, like one additional level of positive head-scratchers.

The game also looks really good. The environments aren't inspired, but the look and feel of the game is very slick, exactly like you'd want a first-person game like this to look and play.

This isn't much of a game. I didn't connect at all with the protagonist, and the game objectives are seldom entertaining, just an excuse to mash buttons as the two men drone on about nothing. Should have been a short story/film instead.

I had never heard of this game when a friend recommended it to me in a text messages (saying he couldn't put it down until he was complete), but precisely the same thing happened to me.

The Sexy Brutale is a time-loop puzzle game in which you explore the titular casino/hotel attempting to prevent the murders of the guests by the staff. It's filled with dark, quirky charm and loads of secrets, and the way that the story and exploration unfold propelled me to discover every secret the game had to offer before putting it down.

There's no failure here -- only failure to prevent a murder or murders by the time those murders occur in the day, necessitating a repeat of that day with the same objective. Successfully preventing a murder unlocks the next objective and potentially more of the backstory, which is full of interesting surprises.

I'd highly recommend picking this up on sale; I've never quite played a game designed like this, and I rather enjoyed it.

PowerWash Simulator was one of the first games I purchased after getting a Steam Deck, and I even purchased it at full price because honestly I couldn't see a game like this not being fun. It appeals to a particular type of person -- people who love first-person perspective games but are stressed out by most FPS -- and I am that particular type of person.

The premise of the campaign is simple -- complete cleaning job after cleaning job where a structure, vehicle, or environment is positively covered in dirt, grime, and filth. You spray that crud off with water. Higher diffusion equals lower power, and while there is no way to fail in career mode, it seems silly to clean in any but the most efficient way you can devise. For me, that meant using a lot of yellow nozzle (and then green when I could get away with it) to methodically complete the task at hand. There's a flash of white with a properly Pavlovian cha-ching after cleaning each singly-enumerated item that comprises the overall job, and I found that the more difficult it was to find the last offending granules of dirt in a job, the more satisfying the payout.

If there is challenge to this game, it is in finding and eliminate nearly every speck of dirt, which can be difficult depending on how the 3D geometries as arranged. However, the game does give you a number of tools to identify "missed spots," many of which I didn't really discover and avail myself of until I was halfway through the surprisingly lengthy campaign. The game won't complain about how long it takes you to complete any job or how you do it, though. At worst, you won't be able to afford upgrades as quickly or unlock new jobs as quickly. That's it.

Lastly, I make a point of distinguishing between games I play with my full attention and games that can play leisurely around my wife while she watches crap TV (i.e., "quality time"). This game falls squarely into the latter category, and it can be picked up and put down easily if your life is as prone to interruptions as mine is.

The game has also multiplayer, but I always play solo; never tried it.

If there's anything negative to say about this game, it's that it doesn't have catchy, whimsical cleaning music (or any at all). You're only treated to any music in the end credits, and while thematically appropriate, the end credits theme just isn't a good song at all. Called me spoiled by Portal & Portal 2, Call of Duty: MW, Bugsnax, etc., but if you have an end credits theme with vocals, you had better provoke a smile with it.

For a failure-free adventure with only light puzzle-solving and collecting, I was surprised that Bugsnax remained engaging from start to finish and beyond. Top notch voice acting and very memorable characters also elevate this collect-a-thon from a quirky curiosity to a truly worthwhile experience.

My kids also are completely addicted to the end credits theme, which is among the best I've ever heard -- every lyric pertains directly to some aspect of the game, but it lands as remarkably clever rather than contrived. Bravo!

I would have been happy with just more puzzles, but the gameplay improvements, barrage of jokes, and exemplary co-op modes, this remains one of my top 5 games of all time.