The only games I played that came out this year were Touhou Fossilized Wonders, which I enjoyed; fun characters and good music as usual. And Metal Garden, a short, atmospheric FPS set in a megastructure. If you like Blame! check it out.
Some highlights of stuff I played that didn't come out this year:
Pokemon Trozei: Surprisingly really fun puzzle game for the DS. It's a match-3 type game but you have to slide the pokemon icons around on the touchscreen. Emulated it on my 3DS but I also played it a bit on PC and it was perfectly fine with the mouse.
Etrian Odyssey 3: It's hard to top the novelty of the original but it brings some improvements to the dungeon cartography and I found the strata to all be enjoyable and not overstay their welcome too much. Getting stomped by an FOE always reminds me of the inherent whimsy of an oldschool party-wipe. Yuzo Koshiro delivers another stellar soundtrack, maybe the best of the original DS trilogy.
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake: It's wild how modern this one feels. I played Ghost Babel a long time ago, and that game definitely seems close to the final form of 2D metal gear, but this one does not feel that far behind. Definitely a must-play if you like the later games.
Arrest of a Stone Buddha: A hitman in 70s france. Sections split between John Wick style killing sprees and ennui filled wandering of the streets between missions. A true role-playing game, in that how you choose spend that time is up to you. It's hard to articulate right but if you like games with roleplay considerations like a dedicated walk button or are the type to take your Yakuza character to the coffee shop every morning before starting a mission you'd probably enjoy this one. Action bits can have some cheap shots but I didn't find it overly problematic.
This looks pretty cool! I'm a big touhou fan so I'd definitely say if you like this you'd like the mainline stuff.
How would I go about playing those games on Linux?
I haven't tested extensively but I've played a few through wine just fine. That was a while ago though I'm sure there's better tech to run it with now.
Downloaded jerboa to maximize my antiproductivity at work but I feel like it's kinda unwieldy to use? Idk maybe I'm just a boomer who prefers using The Computer to Surf The Internet
Thank you, this is super helpful! I do think I'll just be happy to have the ball rolling regardless of method or dosage especially for this first appointment. And I'll keep your words in mind when it comes time to evaluate my dosing.
happy new year to all my trans comrades!