Ghostwire: Tokyo, Lost Castle and Super Meat Boy Forever

Games that focus on DEATH!

Ghostwire: Tokyo

When supernatural entities take over Tokyo, its up to you to save everyone's souls! Despite an average story this one definitely got me hooked, as wandering around the deserted streets is super immersive and exploration and stealth game play is rewarded.

Despite dealing with ghosts and yokai there aren't many scary sections at all which might be a negative but I really enjoyed it. The expansion mode of the Spider's Thread is more roguelike where they do expect you to die a lot though, and becomes repetitive. Way better than the prelude though.

Lost Castle

Speaking of roguelike - this is the entire premise for Lost Castle. You get a randomly generated adventurer to see how far you get into the demon's castle, die, and unlock some mild boons for your next randomly generated adventurer. Got old quick with the below average graphics and the inability to spell "Altar" but at least there was no platforming.

Super Meat Boy Forever

This sequel to the punishing original is just as gory but turned me off right away as a lot of control has been taken away from the player to be an "auto runner" type where your controls are only along the lines of jump, jump twice to attack or duck. You need to hit a "change direction pillow" to go the other way. Clearly designed for a mobile device this button mashing iteration is just not for me.

Avatar: The Last Airbender (Season 1) and YuYu Hakusho (Season 1)

Netflix live action adaptations.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

When the Fire nation decides to conquer the rest of the world it falls upon a recently returned child protagonist Aang (played by Gordon Cormier), to bring balance to the world. Hang on a minute, hasn't this already been made into live action?

Yes, but this series is better in that it has more time to develop characters, fix some pacing issues and show off more fight scenes. There's also some good martial arts in there behind all the "elemental bending" but overall I'd still rank this behind the live action One Piece series as the characters and script there are a clear step up.

YuYu Hakusho

A rough delinquent is given a second chance to defend the world against invading spirits, and holy hell is it super entertaining. Amazing wirework assists with the very physical confrontations in a no-filler plot that makes this five episode story (yep, that's all that's in season one) very binge worthy.

Just like Avatar (above) and One Piece I've not seen the source content but this is currently the clear winner among those three, even if some props are hilarious. Recommended!

Doom Eternal

Doomguy exalted.

This FPS follows on from all the previous Doom titles and like those continues the trend of you fighting horrible demons in violent encounters while exploring a map for secret passages and power ups. As you are able to climb and swing off things there is an added jumping puzzle element here but that's very minor. The biggest difference is in the combat, as based on what you do to your enemies you might be generating ammo (chainsaw), health (melee gory kill), or armor (set them on fire then hurt them) or all the above.

As most major combats take place in arenas now you need to get really good at doing all the above (which by default means you can't be too far away) while under pressure. Enemies have their own weak spots too: the shoulder launchers for revenants, arm cannons of mancubi, tail for pinkies etc - just to keep you on your toes as you fight a more and more mixed bag of enemies with your ridiculously large arsenal of weapons, most of which have two modes of fire which you can switch mid battle as well as upgrade! All up a very solid entry to the Doom franchise.

Orphan Black: Echoes and The Vow

A pale copy and a slow film.

Orphan Black: Echoes

In this single season series continuation of Orphan Black, cloning is still highly illegal and yet here come more clones! While it may have been an OK series on its own, the fact that it basically covers the same ground as the original without being as good already puts problems on it. I do applaud them for finding a way for lead actress Krysten Ritter to not have the insane work load Tatiana Maslany had in the original but I feel they really needed to be more trigger happy in offing characters. The fact that it got cancelled while ending on a cliffhanger just solidifies my recommendation to skip this pale immitation of the original. As an aside, this must win one of the worst opening songs ever.

The Vow

After a car accident, the marriage of the victims (played by Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams) is tested as the wife loses all memory of her time with the husband - gravitating towards the different person she was before they met. You can already imagine what complications that could entail and I'd say 80% of the first things you may think of happen here. There are few interest grabbing segments in a sea of a glacially paced drama which makes this an easy skip, even if you like the premise, genre or actors.  

Baldur's Gate 3: Obliteration

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The party group up with Gortash to head to the elder brain's lair and try re-establish control of it with the netherstones. This ultimately fails as the brain has evolved into a netherbrain which power word kills Gortash. The D20 warps the party out of there as the brain begins to float up to the city, turning the many infected people into mindflayers while also summoning more nautiloids from realm space to take over the world. To combat this the D20 manifests itself as a mindflayer too and suggests one of the heroes also goes mindflayery.

Karlach volunteers, turning into a cute squidface. They then manage to meet up with their allies: Councillor Florrick who offers three soldiers, three vampire hunters, Volo and Sarevok (those last two just give passive buffs) before heading into a massive battle against pretty much everything they've fought up to this point but it is Varanna who is the MVP with her bow and a lot of exploding arrows (which she can shoot multiple times per turn apparently).

In the end it is Gale who is the hero though, climbing up onto the brain as it hovers far above Baldur's Gate and self detonates his bomb - obliterating it from existence. This causes fatal headaches to the enemy flayers and giving the citizens the upper hand against the invaders. Karlach and the D20 then go into hiding, Varanna returns to working for the guild, and Catharina (who went against Bhaal's wishes of dominating the brain) quickly degrades into a killer flesh puppet for the god of murder.

Baldur's Gate 3: Trading Up

[Part of the Cursed story line]

The trap is not a very good one and the Stone Lord is revealed to be... Minsc!? Didn't he die in some sewers before? And he's here with Jaheira no less. Seems the worm guys have wormed these two as well. At this point Catharina's patience is wearing thin so she just annihilates them all and the thieves guild thanks her by loaning out their highly skilled hireling Varanna to join the crew. Catharina then locates a hidden Bhaal Murder Tribunal run by Sarevok (whom Catharina killed before) and the ghosts of other Bhaalspawn as well!

They are quite pleased with Catharina's actions thus far - giving her directions to the underground temple of Bhaal, deep down past the grease filled sewers. The place is well guarded by other Bhaal cultists who manage to push poor Kerz into a yawning chasm of instadeath. Beyond is Orin who duels with Catharina (in slayer form) and Orin is literally ripped a new one as Catharina forcefully removes her netherstone then loots that sexy blood armor of hers.

Before going back to Gortash the team visits Cazador, Astarion's vampire master, who it seems was expecting him as he immediately yanks the assassin into being part of the helpless sacrificial victims that explode into giblets when Cazador completes his ascension ritual. Catharina isn't impressed as even the ascended vampire can do little against her slayer form and her friends. Wtih all the vamps dead, the vampire hunters are happy and offer their aid when the time comes, which will be real soon...

Baldur's Gate 3: Making Alliances

[Part of the Cursed story line]

Arriving at the outskirts of Baldur's Gate the team is greeted by a welcome sight - people aren't mindflayers (yet), though there are numerous refugees flooding the area for the safety of Lord Gortash's Steel Watch - giant guard bots also powered by infernal engines, making him a popular guy in town. Orin on the other hand outs herself early as a shapeshifter, leaving ambushes for Catharina almost everywhere, like the circus. Gotta get those evil clowns in somehow! Orin murders Halsin in one of these.

Gortash meets with the party and offers a truce, joint rule over the brain provided they can deal with the clearly unhinged Orin and take her stone. Karlach is upset Catharina accepts this, but it does mean an easier time navigating the streets with all the now non-hostile robot guards around. While this is happening Astarion sneaks into the dungeon and frees Councillor Florrick who had opposed Gortash, a useful ally for the future perhaps?

He also runs into a band of vampire hunters who ask him to deal with his master Cazador. Surprising they don't just attack Astarion immediately but maybe they sense some good in this assassin after all? The local thieves guild are more neutral, but are willing to help if the party helps them deal with a new gang following The Stone Lord. They've set a trap for those guys in the local bank (which they run, lol) so that's next on the agenda.