We need more longer months not short ones! Where did February go?
What has been your primary game this past month? It could have been a recent title, a new discovery, or something from your backlog. Or perhaps an old favorite you returned to years later? Honorable mentions are also welcome, these would be other games that you enjoyed this past month, but not the one you spent the most time enjoying.
For February 2023 my game of the month is:
Before We Leave - Fun little hex tile city builder, not sure if I like the hopping between worlds for resources and research thing they have going on, but it was decent enough to suck up most of my gaming time in February.
Honorable mentions:
COH 3 - A return to form for Relic, it could use a few balance patches, but overall there is RTS fun to be had with this one.
Again I have not had much gaming time sadly, lets hope free time is more abundant now that its a new month!
What game defined February 2023 for you? What was your Game of the Month?
Another month with little gaming time, which means I spent the majority of it with Final Fantasy XIV Online and, thanks to its quick runs, Brotato. So those are my games of the month, but I’ll give honorable mentions to Spellforce: Conquest of Eo and Hogwarts Legacy, two games I wish I had more time to play.
Spellforce: Conquest of Eo - Takes the crown both for most enjoyed and most played. A different 4X that borrows some ideas from other games to make something that just feels different and really enjoyable. It’s not perfect and as it stands it isn’t one of those 4Xs that I can play for 1000 hours, but that’s OK.
Splay the Spire: Downfall : I finally gave this mod a try and it is really good. The new classes feel pretty different and since it’s Slay the Spire it’s built on an already fun game.
Hogwarts Legacy : Makes a good first impression with how pretty and atmospheric it is, but then the UBI-like syndrome kicks in. The different things to do are fun once or twice, and then it just feels like busywork. The story is OK. It’s not a bad game, but I could have passed on it and not felt like I really missed anything.
I also played some Castles of Burgundy and Desperados 3, both good, but I didn’t spend a ton of time with either.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses (Switch) - Thanks to some folks in the QT3 Switch thread talking about using split joy-con controls while they exercised, I managed to almost complete this game on the stationary bike in February. Really fun, with cool battles. The only thing I really dislike is how much critical information is buried in menus. I’ll be up for a simpler RPG as my exercise distraction after this one.
Runners-up:
Dead Space (PS5) - Phenomenal remake. Done in 12 hours and every moment was enjoyable.
Marvel Champions (Boardgame) - I picked up several of the remaining hero packs that I was missing and went deep down the deckbuilding rabbithole. I still enjoy the Arkham Horror LCG more, but it’s so easy to set up and fly through a 30-minute game of Champions.
I ran through Shadowrun: Dragonfall for the fourth or fifth time and ended up winning the game with a super bleak ending.
I’ve also been putting time into Rocksmith 2014 (not Rocksmith+) and have been generally pleased with my progress. I’m still climbing up various leaderboards (almost always on Easy difficulty, of course) and feeling that I’m getting better. However, I don’t know how much transfers over to playing guitar without the prompting of a falling colorful box intersecting with a line at the bottom of the screen.
It looks like Age of Wonders or Heroes of Might and Magic, even plays similarly at first – but over time shows itself to be much more interested in player creativity and problem solving than either of those games. A meddling wizard simulator.
I got pulled into Old World and there was little time for anything else in February outside of some Wylde Flowers.
Really, I didn’t expect that Old World would grab me like it did. Turns out that I love the dynasty and storytelling far more than the 4x gameplay. I’m so much more a builder than a fighter, so it’s right up my alley, win or lose.
Got back to Shin Megami Tensei 4 after a little break, but still need to finish. It was interrupted late in the month by some Tactics Ogre Reborn and Trails of Zero (which looks fantastic).
February was the month I finally broke my Grim Dawn addiction, and I still didnt finish the last expansion, but I really needed a break.
Have not played a game as much as Elden Ring and Grim Dawn last year since Skyrim released.
Great to see another Trails from Zero fan. I really enjoyed my time in it.
The game I played most was the Final Fantasy II pixel remaster. The game I enjoyed best, though, was the Octopath Traveler II demo. I started playing with the thief and was surprised how much I got into her story. I hope the other characters are as good.
