QC Done

Category: Season 6

  • Bao Bao’s Cozy Laundromat: Review

    Bao Bao’s Cozy Laundromat is the latest game from solo developer Destroyer Doggo, and it is an idler game, which is something that you leave running on the side while you do other work, such as writing a review for Bao Bao’s Cozy Laundromat. 

    There is a rapidly growing playerbase around Idler games these days, thanks to the indie hit Rusty’s Retirement, which came out in April 2024. Since then, quite a few developers have tried to bring their own spin to this subgenre of games that sit on your desktop and let you do other things in the background, while still making progress in the game due to automated gameplay.

    Idler games are not to be confused with Idle games, which function in a similar fashion, but offer complete automation. You can close idle games and still see progress when you open them up again. Idler games on the other hand, require you to keep the game open in order to see progress, but the core concept of automatic gameplay still applies here. These definitions are not set in stone, and even some developers use these two terms interchangeably, but this is just me trying to differentiate between the two subgenres. 

    If you’re not going to watch the entire video, here’s a summary: Bao Bao’s Cozy Laundromat is a charming introduction to the idler game subgenre. Featuring a visually pleasing pixel art style and soothing lo-fi music tracks, this is a game that invites you to leave it open on your desktop while you work. The game controls being limited to a menu instead of being tied to the items can feel a bit strange and make the gameplay slower, and the inclusion of limited time events introduces a sense of FOMO in an otherwise relaxing game, but these things are not a dealbreaker, and you can completely ignore the limited time events to avoid FOMO anyway. If you have never played an idler game, then this one is a great place to start. 

  • Monster Hunter Wilds: Campaign Review

    This is a review of the base campaign for Monster Hunter Wilds. It doesn’t talk about the endgame or any other content that takes place after the credits roll. This video is targeted at players who are new to the franchise.

    After hitting more than 1.3 million concurrent players on steam in the first few hours of its release, Monster Hunter Wilds is now a monstrous hit for Capcom. That doesn’t mean the game isn’t without a few issues. In fact, on day one, the game received a mixed review rating on steam, primarily due to its poor performance on PC. We’ll get to that later. 

    The game itself has been receiving mostly good reviews, as it lives up to the standards of the 20-year old franchise, while also being accessible enough to welcome new players.

    For those who don’t want to watch the full video, here’s the summary: The base campaign is short, enjoyable, and quite easy, at least compared to the previous two games in the series. These games are meant to be played for a long time, so finishing the campaign is only step one towards experiencing the game. I’m currently not aware of what is included in the endgame, but media outlets have suggested that it has content worth another 15-20 hours.

    If you’re playing on PC during the launch window, do make sure you will actually be able to run the game smoothly, or else wait for some performance patches. Apart from the PC performance hiccups, there is little to complain about Monster Hunter Wilds. It is an excellent introduction to the series for new players, and offers many quality of life improvements to returning players. On the whole I enjoyed the 12-13 hours I spent on the campaign.

  • Wheel World: Gameplay Preview

    If I had to describe Wheel World in one sentence, it would be, “Forza Horizon, but with a bicycle.” 

    Originally titled “Ghost Bike”, this is an open world adventure, with a sci-fi narrative layered on top. You play as Kat, a young cyclist, with a huge responsibility: save your universe using your bike. 

    I’m not too sure about how the story will land, but let’s not judge it based on a 15-minute demo. The set-up is that you find a bike which has a skull attached to it, and that skull guides you on a journey to fulfill your destiny. 

    The primary goal seems to be gathering some legendary parts for your bike, so that you become eligible for a huge ritual of some sort, which will somehow save the universe. Anyway, let’s forget the story for a bit, and focus on the cycling.

  • Lost Records: Bloom & Rage – Tape 1: Review

    Lost Records: Bloom and Rage is a narrative adventure from Don’t Nod studio, the folks who made the very first Life is Strange game. After handing over that franchise to Deck Nine, Don’t Nod branched off into different genres. 

    Now they have returned to their roots, with an episodic narrative game. Unlike their earlier games, there are only two parts to this one, and the wait between each release isn’t too long – the second part is set to come out in mid-April, which isn’t a bad wait.

    Alright, so first, the summary of the review for those who don’t want to watch the entire video. This game targets a niche audience, specifically those who loved the early Life is Strange games. It follows a very similar formula, although with much less supernatural stuff going on. 

    Also, your enjoyment of this game is going to depend a lot on how old you are, and whether or not you can relate to around six hours of cultural references from the 90s.

    It’s a story narrated across two separate years, with the adult characters reminiscing over the incidents that took place in the summer of 1995.

    If you don’t have the patience to do a lot of basic exploration and listen to a lot of dialogue with not much else going on, you’re probably not going to like this game.

    However, for those who go in knowing what to expect, the story is off to a good start, with the obligatory cliffhanger at the end so that you are eager to play the next part. 

    The visuals, voice performances and heartfelt moments in the story are all top notch. However, the overall pacing of the story is a bit slow, and it takes a while for things to really get going. Also, while the story is fine, the dialogues are a bit tough to relate to, since we are following the story of four teenagers. Again, this depends on your own age, I guess. 

  • Detective Dotson: Gameplay Preview

    A story driven adventure game set in modern day India. That’s how Detective Dotson describes itself, and those following the gamedev scene in India will know that this is a risky concept that not a lot of Indian studios would be willing to take up. 

    Masala Games, the studio behind Detective Dotson, is not afraid to put its Indian roots on full display. In fact, the star of the game is not Dotson, but the Indian city that he is living in. I wasn’t able to catch the name of the city, and was able to see signboards in three different Indian languages, but seeing how Dotson’s ambition is to become a Bollywood star, it’s safe to assume that the city is inspired by Mumbai. 

    As the name of the game suggests, you play as a detective, who has to go around the city and solve various cases.

  • Kabuto Park: Gameplay Preview

    When I first saw the trailer for Kabuto Park, I wasn’t really sold on the idea. Catching bugs and then entering them in sumo wrestling style tournaments. But I’m very glad that I actually started playing the demo, because I was hooked within a couple of minutes. 

    Kabuto Park is an upcoming game from Doot, who specialises in making tiny games. The idea is that you enjoy an engaging gameplay loop and finish the game really fast, so that you don’t have to sit through any filler or pointless grinding, just so that the game can justify a higher price point.

    Kabuto Park is going to priced around $5, and after playing the demo I can confidently say it is worth much more than that. At it’s core, it is a game about catching creatures and then using them to battle against other creatures.

  • Let’s Build A Dungeon: Preview

    Let’s Build A Dungeon is an ambitious simulation game that promises a lot of interesting features, provided you are willing to invest a bit of time to get past the learning curve.

    This game is made up of two parts – the first is that it offers you a simulation of building and playing your own MMO, complete with quests and whatnot. The second part is building and running your own gamedev studio, which is in fact running that MMO you were building earlier.

    This multilayered approach to gameplay can get a bit confusing in the beginning, but the 30-minute demo showed promise that the formula can maybe work quite well.

  • Sojourn Past: Preview

    Before we proceed, please note that this video is a preview based on the current demo build available for the game. The developers have mentioned that a few gameplay and design changes are expected for the full game, so whatever gameplay you see in this video might not represent the final game accurately.

    However, that shouldn’t stop you from playing the demo right now, because Sojourn Past is a very solid, challenging action-adventure game with beautiful art and music, and it is definitely worth a try. And if you like what you see, please do consider wishlisting the game, as it helps the game gain more visibility on the Steam store.

    Okay, so let’s get on with the preview.

    I first encountered Sojourn Past at IGDC 2023, where it won the best upcoming game award. Then at IGDC 2024, the developers came back with a demo showcase, after having secured funding from Krafton India, which is further proof of the game’s potential. At the event, I was told that the game is expected to be difficult, and I promptly ran away. 

    It’s now been a few months, and the public demo is now available for everyone to play from the safety of their homes. And I can safely edit out the parts where I died and pretend that I’m a good player. Or at least, that’s what I thought, but it turned out that I couldn’t finish the demo not because I died a lot, but because I simply didn’t know where to go next. 

    Sojourn Past is designed similar to the classic game Journey, where you are thrown into the game without much context about who you are or what your objective is, and you are just expected to keep moving forward. There are a few cutscenes that give you a hint of the story, which appears to be some sort of a rescue mission, but for the most part, the story is left intentionally vague. Even the steam store page doesn’t directly tell you what’s going on, apart from promising a heartfelt story.

  • Hades II: The Warsong Update – Gameplay Impressions (Spoilers!)

    After the Olympic Update came out in October 2024, Supergiant Games has delivered another incredible update to an already incredible game. And yet, I will say this once again: I do feel bad that we are getting a sequel instead of an original IP from this talented team. But…I have complained about that enough times now, so let me move on to the update.

    The Warsong Update is all about boss fights. Unlike the previous update, there’s no new weapon to play with this time, but there are a few interesting boss fights, and it’s a fresh challenge to use all six weapons against them. I stuck to the newest weapon – the Black Coat – as it offers the best of both worlds – it has melee and ranged attack options, and that’s one of the two reasons I was able to beat the final boss – Typhon – in two attempts. The second reason of course, is that I’m using God mode and get 80% damage resistance, but let’s not dwell on that.

    After beating Prometheus, we move on and continue our journey to the top of Mount Olympus. There aren’t too many rooms to clear here, but there’s a couple of boss fights before reaching the final encounter. The first one seems to be a random one, because I got two different bosses during my two runs. The first one was a minotaur kind of beast who kept charging around the room, destroying the walls. The other time I got a pair of smaller enemies called the Twins of Typhon, who honestly didn’t feel that bad. 

    After this came a surprising boss fight that turned out to be really fun. We fight the tail of Typhon, and it is no joke. Without the damage resistance, I would have no doubt failed this fight multiple times. Thankfully, the patterns aren’t too hard to learn and I was able to clear this on my first try.

    Then came the final boss – Typhon, the Father of monsters. He is so huge that he can’t really move around and just hovers on the top of the screen. This kind of reminded me of the second main boss fight in the first game – the bone hydra – who is much smaller than Typhon, but also uses a similar, hovering on the top of the screen approach. 

    Typhon’s attack patterns are a bit more difficult to counter, which is why I failed my first attempt, but I soon figured out that my best chance was to use my damage resistance to my advantage, and just go up close to him and spam my attacks. In my second run I got a decent attack build, which gave me 60% extra damage and freeze for my primary attack, as well as a nice spike attack for my dash ability. This, along with other attack bonuses helped me beat the boss on my second run, and it was quite fun.

  • Why I Didn’t Buy – Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii

    I recently played the demo for Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, and really liked it. It seemed like a fun mixture of a brawler game and a pirate adventure.

    However, today is February 21, the release date of the full game, and instead of playing it, I’m making a YouTube video trying to justify why I didn’t buy the game.

    Here’s the summary: the $60 price tag seems too much for what feels like a very well polished DLC for Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth. And given the publisher SEGA’s history, it is a safe guess that this game will end up on a subscription service in a few months. In the meantime, for the same price tag, I can buy “Monster Hunter Wilds” which is coming out in a week, and which will last way longer than the 30-40 hours that Pirate Yakuza offers.