[SirFozzie]

Still no home internet (FIOS moved the install date at 2:45 PM on 1/10 from "1/10, 1-3 PM" to 1/20. So no home internet for a couple weeks!

But here we go:

backlog of shame reviews (Plus a couple bonus)

Instead of a numerical grade, I'm going to give it the "Foz Quick Review Scale": (in ascending order) Yuck, Ugh. Meh, Ok, Good, Great, Awesome)

Troubleshooter:Abandoned Children (No, not the action-adventure Pen and Paper RPG based off Belgian and French Comics (That's The Troubleshooters), nor the pen and paper one that was the base version of Paranoia two versions ago (Paranoia:Troubleshooters). This is basically K-Pop X-COM. A massive city forbidden from having its own standing forces due to international pressure, and the Criminals are more and more brazen, destructive and over the top. So, they created private security forces with the power to investigate, detain and arrest criminals (by hitting them with large swords and various explosive abilities, natch). Kinda like Judge Dredd without the fascism and with a serving of Anime Tropes (I can think of several past animes that did this kind of concept). It's like someone saw X-Com's game play, and decided to bolt on a whole shitton of extra things on it, including online play if that's your forte, but I'm talking more about a Final Fantasy style mastery board and endlessly grindy stuff. I think the grind is going to get to me after a while (I've done a few missions, and the amount of extraneous stuff is mind blowing) and I think they could have toned it down several degrees, but it's a good concept. It's not a short game, a single complete (not completionist) playthrough is estimated at 60-100 hours, and that's if you don't decide to grind endlessly. Not sure I have the willpower/energy for a 100 hour game with all the other games on my backlog (including all the other games that I play that are endless time sinks), but it feels like that it could fill some time.


Foz Rating: Ok, but your thoughts on very lengthy/grindy games may raise or lower this rating in your eyes.


Pro Strategy Football 23: A football sim that is more strategic then Madden, but less in the weeds then say, most Sports Sims. This focuses on more of the coaching (on-field aspects, as at the casual level, all you do is select formation and playtype (Inside run/outside run/middle run, Short/Medium/Long Pass, trick plays, Special teams, etcetera). Expert Level lets you set more stuff like setting blitzers on defense, or setting up receiver routes on pass plays. It's all strategy based, and tries to find a sweet spot in career play between minutiae and speed of play (there's no contract system, instead a number of players are randomly selected from each team each year to become free agents (you can control how many, and if you can keep one would-be Free Agent per season as a franchised player, and then there's a draft on Free Agents before the usual Draft). Its setup is very much like a mobile game (they even tell you to tap or click rows to select them), but no monetization stuff. I'd like to see more official support in non-NFL setups (it needs more base leagues to start from then the standard NFL-style setup). If you love the grognardy stuff, you may want to try other games like the Draft Day Sports football games, with the bonus there being that you can link their college and pro games together for a shared universe), but it's not super expensive ($20), and I've gotten more than its purchase price from it already.


Foz Rating: Good to Good+ based on my own tastes.


Monster Train: One of my go-to "I have 35 minutes to waste before going to bed or going out" games. It's kinda like a card game-tower defense mashup. You have a four level train barreling through hell to relight the frozen flame of hell, and angels move through your train attacking anyone on the level and trying to move up through the train to the top level to attack your pyre. If your pyre takes too much damage, you lose. It's good for bitesized game play and I have my favorites. One suggested mod is the "Restart Battle" button, as it will allow you to correct mistakes (putting the wrong monster in front, for example, as all enemies attack the front monster until it's dead or the turn ends), and definitely install the mod that gets rid of the opening cinematic which is cool the first time, but annoying if you launch the game repeatedly. I'm giving it a great in that it fills a short amount of time, and while there's cosmetics available, and some gated stuff by XP, you can play as little or as much as you want, and each run is independent of the next (you'll get different units/upgrades depending on the faction you play as, but again, no mobile transactions, except for a DLC, which is pretty standard these days). It's pretzels. Quick, filling, and lets you move on without stuffing yourself or consequences.


Foz Rating: Great


Slay the Spire: Definitely a tougher 35 minute card game, I do like the custom mode. I haven't got the "official" ending that requires you to start with a base deck, do several challenges in a run, then defeat a super-boss at the end of your run, but taking one of the four base classes/decks that come with the game, and setting up modifiers (my personal favorite is setting max difficulty, but giving myself the ability to draft a starting deck out of 30 random cards rather then the base boring cards, and giving me and the enemies bonus strength). Again, a very addictive, but bite sized game in that each Spire run is different. I average between 20-35 minutes a run in the balls to the wall mode (and that's even with the double boss but no super-boss). Super addictive


Foz Rating: Great