There's a good reason I held back on the publication of this by a week. I thought there was a chance I would acquire a PS4 this weekend and I was right. The significant bump in pay from the camp job gave me enough to get a PS4 and squirrel away money for the fall convention season. That means there are quite a few new games appearing on the Games I Can't Stop Playing list this month, and one insidious game that has reared its ugly head again in a mockery of my two month moratorium on playing.
Knack (PS4)
I'm a sucker for a good platformer game. Knack is everything I wanted The Wonderful 101 to be, only with one mech-like fighter and controls/camera angles that work. You play as a scientist and magical robot team sent on a wild mission to stop a species of goblins from taking over the world. The game is just beautiful to look at and the combat makes as much sense as the platforming, which is tight as a drum. It's a short game, but I'll be replaying it in the future.
TowerFall: Ascension (PS4)
You know what else I'm a sucker for? Retro arcade games. I'm old enough to have not only spent much of my childhood in actual coin-operated arcades (none of that fancy gaming card stuff for me), but to own the original NES console. TowerFall: Ascension feels like one of those old arcade or NES games. You play as one of four classes of archers fighting wave after wave of enemy with upgrades like shields and bomb arrows. The meat of the game is in the local only multiplayer. I haven't even tested that out yet and I'm hooked on beating my high scores and fastest times in the solo mode.
Destiny (PS4)
Destiny is the new MMOshooter from Bungie, the developers of the Halo franchise. I normally can't play this style of shooter because of my vision problems. One of the rare exceptions to that rule is the original Halo game. This plays a lot like that, only with graphics lovelier than Mass Effect. You choose from one of three classes, then one of three races (male and female options provided for each), then start choosing missions and traveling through space to fight hostile enemy races. I can't wait for the full release.
NeverEnding Nightmares (PC)
I knew when I heard the story behind NeverEnding Nightmares that I would have to back the Kickstarter. Matt Gilgenbach decided to create an original horror game inspired by his battle with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, a mental disorder I also suffer from. He approached it from the purely obsessive thoughts angle, creating a nightmare where a young man keeps waking up into more and more disturbing variations of the same nightmare where someone (perhaps even him) has murdered his sister. The art style is gorgeous (it looks like pencil line art) and this is truly the first media object I've found that accurately portrays OCD. I cannot wait for the full game to release so I can review it for real.
Wayward Manor (PC)
Another beta crowd-funded PC horror game, another experience unlike any other you can get right now. Neil Gaiman wrote Wayward Manor and it is the cutest horror-ish game since Costume Quest. You play as the ghosts that haunt a large mansion currently being destroyed by its inhabitants. You go floor by floor, building up enough scares to clear the rooms and send the obnoxious humans fleeing from the building. It's a whole lot of fun and I can only imagine the experience will tighten up and play smoother when the game leaves its beta.
The Binding of Isaac (PC)
It happens every time I see a new The Binding of Isaac tournament on Twitch. I can disappear for months and get sucked back in by seeing one race from players far better than I am. Then I can't escape. The Binding of Isaac is a fantastic game, but one that can easily overtake all your spare time as you try to master every enemy and unlock all the items.
What have you been playing this month? Let me know in the comments below.