Recent reviews by Bat Country

This game is a great idea, but executed in a way where it is extremely confusing, but probably not in the way the developer intended. To a casual observer, the AI ignores half the rules and it puts the player at an extreme disadvantage. This looks like it's happening only because the way that branching and your control over the movement of the present line is extremely under-explained in the documentation, and not covered by any of the simpler puzzles which I feel provide the only in-game tutorial you have available to you at the start.

The documentation mentions that you can rewind the present line by making moves far in the past, but nowhere does it explain how. The purple arrow indicator to indicate whether a branch will affect the present (I think? again, documentation is underdeveloped) at times can be confusingly inconsistent whether it will appear or not, sometimes failing to appear for an arrow that appears like it should cross to the present.

I'd like to recommend the game to my more masochistic friends, but it is just too poorly explained to ever feel like you've got a handle on gameplay, leaving most CPU matches even against the easiest AI to feel arbitrary and unfair. Actually, because of the easy AI's tendency to make bad moves, the harder AI can be easier to understand, because at least its moves have observable reasons for them.

This game would be vastly more accessible if it had a more thorough explanation, and maybe a tutorial, for rewinding, escaping backwards through time, and the "purposeful branching" described in one place in the guide. The ideal place for this would be in the puzzle modes.

Valheim came out the gate very well polished in early access. The developers have a clear vision of where they want to go, and a leisurely but steady release cadence. The game, though not finished storyline-wise is still a real pleasure to play, and is a lot of fun with friends.

The last Zachtronics game, and they have made a doozie of a game out of it. If you have any love of procedural or constraint solving puzzles, you should pick up pretty much any Zachtronics game. One of the highlights of this game is just *how many different* fully fleshed-out puzzle games you get for your purchase, all strung together with a sort of Mandela-effect-flavored nostalgia. The game content is set in a fictionalized version of the early home computer era, with imaginary hardware, game studios, bulletin board systems and public internet, all narrated by brief snippets provided as you progress in the puzzles on the equivalent of a Palm Pilot. Like other Zachtronics games, it contains a chill fallback solitaire game, but in keeping with the theme of the rest of the game, you get multiple. Seriously, check this one out, it's calm, fun, and mentally challenging without being tiring.

Does not work on the HTC Vive

The game claims support for the HTC Vive. Prior to recent patches, it crashed instantaneously when launching under Steam VR unless you launched the 64-bit version instead, which should be the default. Recent patches make the 32-bit version work, however that doesn't actually render the game playable.

First, you can't control your seated position from within the game - it just dumps a one-sided curved screen at crotch-level somewhere in your room scale play area. There is no menu for VR, and no pertinent options anywhere in the title space. The controls are janky, and it will randomly start ignoring your XBox 360 controller.

You cannot disable the desktop window, so this will impact your performance. There appear to be no graphics settings anywhere. Finally, it uses an external launcher which loads in the background. My 54 hours of play time on record is a lie - the menu counts as being in-game, so when you inevitably rage quit the main menu due to technical issues, it keeps showing you as playing Elite Dangerous in VR.

If you want to buy this game for a great VR experience, don't. You will not enjoy yourself.

Furniture Surgeon

Great fun for 4 players around a TV. Works with any gamepad or keyboard. Easy to pick up and learn, but as the trailers say: expect to die. Quite good replayability, amusing loot, and your own actions can produce unwinnable situations with hilarious results. Never accidentally drop a kitty in lava.

They see me rollin'
They hatin'.