Steam Library A-Z Challenge

The challenge: To play through each of the games on my Steam library. The rule: I have to play at least 1 hour of each game, in alphabetical order. So you've probably heard of one of the original rogue-likes - Crawl. When I saw this game was next on the list I was expecting just that, the ascii turn-based dungeon crawler, or possibly an updated graphical version. This is not that. This is WAY BETTER. Most of the monsters on screen here are being controlled by players. It's rad Crawl is a game obviously designed for multiplayer, and the fact that I had such a blast playing it single player is a testament to how awesome it is. You're an adventurer trying to escape from a procedurally generated dungeon. Easy enough, except your friends play ghosts who are also trying to do the same. The ghosts can inhabit monsters, spawn slimes and even possess traps to try their very best to kill you. The neat part is that the ghost who lands the final blow on the human adventu...

The challenge: To play through each of the games on my Steam library. The rule: I have to play at least 1 hour of each game, in alphabetical order. We've owned this game since beta, and I remember putting many many hours into it when we first got it. In fact, when I loaded the game up initially, the game couldn't recognise huge chunks of itself, and I had to reinstall it. Big mood there, game. I feel ya. Craft the World was released in 2014, but as it has a really nice 2D cartoony style it doesn't seem dated at all. It's somewhere between Minecraft, Dwarf Fortress and Terraria - the aim is to build a Dwarven colony in a hostile land by digging and chopping up resources. It has a really neat and easy to understand tech progression (with a tech tree...mmmmm....) and an easy to use interface. I did notice the Dwarves are incredibly bad at working out how to do what you've asked them - they quite often built themselves into a corner, got stuck, or blocked ...

The challenge: To play through each of the games on my Steam library. The rule: I have to play at least 1 hour of each game, in alphabetical order. Ahh, I remember that day well. It was the first Steam Sale I actually had some money for, and I wanted to get in on those sweet sweet discounts. 'Perhaps I'll just buy the whole Paradox Entertainment pack' I said. 'I really love Mount & Blade, so I reckon I'll love their other games!'. Thanks, past me. You truly cursed me that night. My face when I realise my Steam Library is mostly boring map games Ok, so, Commander: Conquest of the Americas. First of all, it's a game that glorifies colonialism. Not great. I think there are natives on the places you colonize, also not good, but thankfully I didn't get that far - I spent most of my play time trying to work out how to sell wine and watching very pretty ships move at a glacial pace. Commander: Conquest of the Americas is another one of those b...

The challenge: To play through each of the games on my Steam library. The rules: I have to play at least 1 hour of each game, in alphabetical order. It's been a while! So long in fact, that I've had to change to title of the blog from 'Steam Challenge 2017'. Yikes! Anyway, what a way to return. Cities in Motion 2. It was released just two years after Cities in Motion 1, and I wonder what advances in bus-simulation technology Paradox made in that time. Could this be the game that makes me love simulation games? How different can it be? Turns out, it's the same, just boring-er.  Cities in Motion 2 is another transportation-line simulator, and again I really have to commend it for its details. The game has charts and stats for *everything*. Including how many people fare-dodge on your trains and buses. It's mind-boggling. When it first loaded up I was looking forward to seeing the art. Cities in Motion 1 had a nice bright style which somewhat of...