January 2020 Channel Update - Off Mr. Kojima's Wild Ride

Hi everyone,

It’s the first update of the new decade! It's a little late but I hope you had a wonderful winter holiday, New Years, etc etc.

TL;DR

• Finished: Death Stranding
• Ongoing: AI: The Somnium Files
• Upcoming: smaller indie stuff, poll

Games Finished Since Last Update

This past three months I mostly focused on Death Stranding (67 parts), which I’ve wrapped up today.

This was my first Kojima game and I can see why many have differing opinions on his work - it’s really hard to give a blanket rec or no rec to DS. I found the game mechanically brilliant, the world setting intriguing, but the way the narrative unfolds middling. All in all it was an entertaining ride though, and I do think it's worth looking into for the weird factor alone.

PS. I’m happy I finished this 70+ hour game at a relative quick pace (for me lol).
 

Progress on Current Stuff 

I started & have been progressing on the winner of the last poll AI: The Somnium Files. Guesstimating I’m ~30-50% through? It’s very steeped in anime/otaku culture but also a genuinely engaging murder mystery - liking it a ton so far.

Upcoming Stuff

Death Stranding was a big project so I’m going to step back with smaller indie titles for a bit first. Have a ton of stuff I've been meaning to get to for the past 50 million years but I don't want to overcommit – will probably post hint doodles on Twitter as usual when I’ve decided the specifics :) 

Other than that, February continues the trend of few new releases so let’s do another poll. Next week I’ll open one with the following options:

• Celeste
• Child of Light
• Dishonored 1 DLC + Dishonored 2
• A Hat in Time
• Metro Exodus
• Resident Evil 2 Remake
• The Talos Principle 
• The Longest Journey
• Va-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action
• Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines

The options are same as last time but I took some out that 1) had ≤ 5 votes in the last poll, and/or 2) are too similar to something I’m playing (ie. AI: Somnium is enough Japanese/detective mystery for now.)  

Feel free to suggest anything < 25 hours to be considered for polling. BTW, I recently got a Switch so Switch games are on the table too. 

That's all for now! Thanks for all your support as always and I'll see you again soon.

Welonz

PS. We're only a month into 2020 but many unfortunate things have been happening all over the world lately (ie. forest fires, virus outbreaks) - please take care, especially if you are in affected areas!