December 2019 Channel Update – End of the Decade

HELLO,

Welcome to the last update of 2019! December’s been a slower month with the holidays and game releases winding down... But that only means it's perfect time to catch up on stuff I missed throughout the year!! 

TL;DR

• Finished: LIS2 Ep 5, Arise: A Simple Story, Telling Lies
• Ongoing: Death Stranding
• Upcoming: Poll winner -  AI: The Somnium Files

Games Finished Since Last Update

November was a month of shorter indie things:

Life is Strange 2 Episode 5 (4 parts): Episodes have varied in quality but the strong endings (much stronger than LIS1) and elevate the season as a whole. We don't have to wait for new episodes anymore so I can recommend it now, although I'm not sure if I can easily say something like "if you liked LIS1 you'll enjoy LIS2 for sure" - LIS2 can be very depressingly real about world issues. That might not be something people who want to play games for escapism want to be a part of.

Arise: A Simple Story (4 parts): A short & beautiful 3D platformer of a dying man journeying through his memories. Along the veins of Journey, GRIS, etc, in terms of art style. The story itself is par for the genre but the wordless metaphorical storytelling is very strong.

Telling Lies (11 parts): A nonlinear detective thriller where primary gameplay loop is searching through video clips to piece together a story involving "four private lives and one big lie". Basically Her Story with a big budget increase – very cool use of the gaming medium, but also really niche.

Progress on Current Stuff 

I’m in Episode/Chapter 5 of Death Stranding with the end nowhere in sight l o l 

Upcoming Stuff 

The winner of the latest Patreon poll is AI: The Somnium Files, which I'm looking to start next week as mentioned in the Nov update. If eligible, be sure to vote on whether you’d prefer English or Japanese voice acting here:  https://www.patreon.com/posts/32477559 

There’s really not much releasing for the rest of December (and even January, really) so aside from DS and AI, I’ll try to slot in indie things I missed throughout the year (hello, Unheard DLC from August….)

That’s all from me for the month, year, and decade! As always feel free to leave questions/suggestions/whatever else in the comments. Otherwise, enjoy your fantastic holiday times and I’ll see you back in 2020!

Welonz