Monthly Free Games (March 2017)

This is my isometric exercise.

Back to posting after a break with a bunch of free games, many of which I've already bought and enjoyed, and many of which are kind of shitty. But there's Lumo, so the month's not a total loss.


Layers Of Fear (XBox One)

I played this, didn't write it up, and then completely forgot what it was when I finally got around to noting my impressions, which isn't a good sign. A quick YouTube refresher reminded me that this is a horror walking simulator. A first person look at stuff game. With a frame rate that is absolute shit. Just juddery and awful and not helping a game in the Overly Complicated Door Opening Mechanics First Person genre.

Project CARS Digital edition (XBox One)

Modern online car game! Pretty cars! Realistic driving! Always online! Free! Not my thing! Where's my new super pretty old school local split screen Burnout? Where's my Split Second 2?

Borderlands 2 (XBox 360)

The two games I've played the most in my entire life are Marvel Puzzle Quest on mobile, and Borderlands 2. I've played through the whole thing probably... four times? It's one of my favorite games ever. this isn't my preferred version, mind you. The Handsome Collection on PS4 is fifteen fuckin' bucks on Amazon. But if, for some reason, you feel the need to pay zero and try it out because somehow you haven't already, get it.

Heavy Weapon (XBox 360)

I feel like I either owned this or played the demo at some point, but I may just have played another cartoony military 2D sidescrolling shooter. Anyway, that's what it is, so if you're into that, March 16 is your lucky day.

Tearaway Unfolded (PS4)

Oh, good. I played this 3D platforming puzzle adventure on my Vita and liked it a lot, except for the having to play it on my Vita part and the having to play it using Vita gimmicks part. It's a paper take on say a Kirby's Epic Yarn type of game, except it's in that Sony style as opposed to that Nintendo style. It's good.

Disc Jam (PS4)

I am always interested, at least briefly, in a weird local multiplayer competitive invented sport game. I like the intent here - a mix of Discs Of Tron and volleyball - but the graphics are garish and distracting and the mechanics are overly complicated.

Under Night: In-Birth (PS3)

Oh, hey, it's one of those names. I'll be up front with you, there's no fucking way I'm going to boot up the PS3 just to download and try a game with a name like that. I looked it up on the Internets and it turns out it's a 2D fighting game that looks like it's based on an anime you've never heard of but is just its own thing. No thank you. I guarantee you if I'd downloaded it I'd see the blood types of at least three characters.

Earth Defense Force 2025 (PS3)

The EDF series is a series in which you, as a cheesy soldier, shoot a ton of cheesy giant bugs in a cheesy, slightly buggy action game that is cheesy. I have what I think is the PS4 remake of this, though it's tough to tell the way the series is structured, and it's a lot of fun for a while before tedium and the game's three-quarter-assed systems start to piss you off.

Lumo (PS4/Vita)

My favorite of the games that are new to me. It's an isometric puzzle platformer that's just really well put together. It's a perfect example of a game that has flaws and problems, and takes those problems into account with extra design features and a really nice, fast checkpointing system. And every once in a while it gets really fucking odd in a good way.

Severed (Vita)

I've actually bought this game twice - once on vita, and once again on iOS because I liked it and wasn't playing it on my Vita. I'm not playing it on iOS either, but that's not entirely Severed's fault. It's a first person dungeon crawler along the lines of the old Eye Of The Beholder, except it's got a creepy unique art style and story, and the combat is touch-based slashing and timing. I think, ultimately, I'm bad at the combat, and the combat is half the game, and that's why I keep giving it up, but on the off chance you have a Vita and not this game, definitely grab it.