Hey everyone! A Squashy blog post on time, what cursed timeline are we living in?! I’m trying to get back into the usual rhythm, so this will be going out at the usual time! October is the start of what I’m calling Silly Season for game releases this year, with everyone trying to get their games out before the big one in November. And I’ve actually played a lot this month so we have a lot to talk about! Without any further yapping, here we go!
I started October in a rather novel way, being in Walt Disney World in Florida. Whilst I was over there, Mojang dropped Minecraft Dungeons II on all platforms and cloud gaming via Game Pass Ultimate. Now, I’m mentioning cloud as that’s actually the way I played through Minecraft Dungeons II, the first game I’ve ever completed on a cloud service. I used my Steam Deck for this, and I have to say, it was genuinely a good experience! I wouldn’t choose to play on cloud over natively on my consoles or PC, but when I had no other option, it more than did the job, so bravo Microsoft! Okay, enough gushing about the platform I used, was the game actually any good? Minecraft Dungeons II doesn’t try to be something it’s not, and it’s something I actually quite like. It knows that it isn’t Diablo, and so it goes for a more beginner friendly dungeon crawler experience, which I think works wonders with the Minecraft IP. The skills aren’t overly complicated and the game isn’t too difficult, but there is enough diversity in weapons and skills where the game isn’t boring either. I managed to run through the games main story in about 8-10 hours, and I had a decent enough time. I also think Dungeons II has a very fair price point at £24.99, and the level of content in the game is about right for that price point. I am curious to see what comes next for this game, as Mojang supported the original Minecraft Dungeons quite vividly. I settled on a 7.6/10 for Minecraft Dungeons II. If you like the Minecraft IP and the dungeon crawler genre, you’ll have a good time here!
I can’t lie, the Sift just felt like the Overworld. However, 60 gamerscore in the bank? I’ll take that all day long.
Now, if you’ve been reading this blog a lot this year, you’ll notice there’s a game I’ve brought up quite a bit, and that’s Slay the Spire. It’s a game that I have been playing in bursts for over a year now, and I just couldn’t get the run I needed to beat the game, always just about falling short. But, on October 7th, in a Disney World hotel waiting for an airport transfer, it happened. I slayed the spire, after 57 hours. Which means I can finally talk about it on here and provide my definitive rating. Slay the Spire is addictive. It’s got that one more run vibe to it, where you just want to try one more different build and see if that’s the one. The thought that goes into each build could be the difference between success and failure, one wrong card and it’s all over. I finally completed the game with the Silent, as I loved her poison options, with the Catalyst+ card allowing me to triple a poison stack being especially useful. Making the choice between attacking or blocking, trying to get some of the more busted Relics from the shop, Slay the Spire is genuinely marvellous at allowing you to take your own initiative. I settled on a 8.8/10 for Slay the Spire, and as soon as I finished my first run, I instantly bought the sequel, and then installed Dicey Dungeons. These games just have a hold on me.
Emerald, very green. Perfect match for my poison Silent build. Very Silent themed this post.
Once I landed back in the good old UK, I remembered I still had a game I was close to finishing and thought, I may as well knock it off the list. Yup, it’s a 2026 list completion next! I picked up the PlayStation Vita, and got to work finishing off Sly Raccoon! I must say I’ve been sleeping on this franchise; I did really enjoy it to be completely honest! Unlike the Ratchet and Clank port I previously played on the Vita, I decided to do some tinkering with this game to make sure the experience was a good one. Surprising absolutely no one, my Vita is hacked, so I used VitaGrafix’s plugin to force 60fps on Sly 1, and I’m so glad I did, genuinely a great way to play this game. Enough about technical caveats, I seem to be doing that a lot today…, back to the actual game. Sly Raccoon is the second PS2 platformer I’ve played this year, and it’s also my favourite. I love the focus on stealth and the different moves Sly has to get around the levels, the shimmying across ledges, the hiding in barrels to avoid cameras. Sly is also pretty weak, one hit kills you instantly, unless you have a horseshoe powerup, then you can take a single hit before it disappears. This means you have to think about your movements, and try and navigate each level without wanting to throw your Vita into a wall. I also thought each level’s hub world was pretty impressive for 2002, and yes, I know Spyro did it too, but I think it’s neat. The different boss battle mechanics also keep you on your toes as you’ll need a different approach for each, and you need to learn the fights. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by Sly Racoon, I went in expecting something similar to Ratchet and Clank 1, and got a better experience. I deliberated on a 8.3/10 for Sly Raccoon, and I feel like the series could certainly make a comeback one day on PS5. Come on Sony.
Oh yes, they did! It may have taken a few months, but we eventually got there. A gold trophy to boot!
Okay, okay. That’s Minecraft Dungeons, Slay the Spire and Sly Raccoon completed. What’s next? Well, this is one I’ve been waiting a long time for, Gears of War: E-Day finally landed whilst I was in the States, and I couldn’t wait to finally get weapons hot on Emergence Day. I grew up playing Gears of War, I hold the original trilogy very close to my heart, so the chance to play through Emergence Day and experience the horror of the Locust invasion first hand? Sign me up. I am so pleased to report that Gears of War: E-Day is FANTASTIC. Gears of War 4 and Gears 5 were serviceable games but they never really nailed that Gears feeling for me, but E-Day takes us back to the brutality of the Locust, and the horror feel the first 3 games had in abundance. Our boy, Marcus Fenix, is back, leading the charge with Bravo Squad, with fan favourite Dom Santiago back as his right-hand man. It felt so good to have Marcus and Dom back; joined by recruits Mags Carter and Lucas Reyes. I won’t spoil the game here, but the campaign is genuinely fantastic, the horror is back to Gears. We see moments between Marcus and Dom that will set up the rest of the trilogy, and we also see the creation of various series staples, which again, I won’t spoil. If you hold the original trilogy in high regard, please play E-Day. Don’t listen to the naysayers online crying their eyes out about the fact you can use a LGBTQ flag as a background in multiplayer, or the complete losers complaining about Mags Carter. The performance was incredible too, locked 60 on Series S in performance mode, and I also played the latter half of the game on my PC and the game looked stunning. I settled on 9.1/10 for Gears E-Day, I highly recommend it to anyone that liked the original games, or shooters in general. The Coalition did justice to the series.
Considering this was set during Emergence Day, I don’t think the apocalypse was cancelled…
There’s one more heavy hitter this month, and this is one I was even more excited about than I was for Gears of War. Anyone that’s spoke to me in the last 8 months would have known how excited I was for Silent Hill: Townfall. One of my favourite games was coming to the UK for the first time, set in the 1990s, designed by a Scottish development team. There was no way this game could go wrong, right? No, there wasn’t. Usually, I try to hide some parts of my review or evaluation till the end but I can’t with this. Townfall is the best Silent Hill game ever produced, I cannot believe just how well Screen Burn Interactive did. Set in a Scottish seaside town called St. Amelia, we wake up as Simon Ordell and we don’t know why we’re here. It’s our job to follow the clues and find out what’s happened. Armed only with a device known as the CRTV, we set out to find answers. The CRTV is bloody brilliant, it allows you to tune into enemy signals and track where they’re going, even through walls. Think Alien: Isolation’s motion tracker, if it could also play story beats out. Oh yeah, it’s used to advance the plot too. Seeing enemies through the wall sounds really strong until you realise you pretty much never have any ammo, and if you’re spotted, you are in a lot of trouble. Simon can use melee weapons but they break very fast, and then you have to source another in the world. This game is very much based around stealth, and it does a fantastic job of keeping you on edge for the entire game. All this being said, my favourite thing about Silent Hill Townfall is the attention to detail. It’s an early game spoiler, but there’s a moment where you have to get the power on in a house. Most games would have you find the breaker in the house and flip a switch, job done. Townfall’s approach? The power is working fine, it’s just the house is out of electricity credit, which was commonplace in the UK during the 1990s and 2000s, a lot of people were on prepaid meters. So, we have to go to a local newsagent and top up the card to progress. There was another moment later on where we’re in a Post Office, and not only is the Post Office stupidly accurate, there was a poster up in there about paying your car tax or the RVLS (the in-universe DVLA) would clamp your car, which gave me a chuckle. I ended up walking around a corner and finding a poster about paying your TV Licence. The poster in question is definitely based on a similar campaign TV Licencing ran in the UK during the 1980s and 90s, and I just think it’s bloody fantastic. They didn’t need to go that extra mile, most people won’t even notice, but the fact they did just makes my experience even better.
This was the scariest part of Silent Hill Townfall. Not the monsters, not the tension, but this.
The cars in the street are Ford Escorts, Nissan Micra’s, period accurate cars, just without the names on. Again, unless you’re from the UK, you most likely won’t even notice these or care, but for me, it was something that just made the experience even more authentic. As you can probably tell, I could rave about this game for hours, and I really would, but I feel like it’s one that people need to experience for themselves. Also, as a brief point, the performance was STUNNING on PlayStation 5 Pro. Ran like a dream and the characters looked almost real, I couldn’t believe some of the fidelity on show here. I previously regarded Silent Hill 2 as the absolute pinnacle of horror games and didn’t know if any game would come close ever again. Silent Hill: Townfall eclipses that for me. Townfall is the best horror game I’ve ever played. I settled on a 9.5/10 for Silent Hill Townfall, my only criticisms are that I wish more of the shops and buildings allowed us to enter them, and the story does slightly rush towards the end, whereas I feel it could have been spaced out just a tiny bit more. Konami, if you’re reading this, PLEASE let Screen Burn make another Silent Hill game. They completely get this series, and not many Western developers have over the years. Please, please don’t let this be a one off.
As per Silent Hill tradition, there is 5 different endings. It’s time to put the game disc back in the drive and get the other 4 endings…
In terms of pick-ups this month, there’s been quite a few! A lot of games releasing means my postbox has been full with parcels, here’s this month’s list:
- Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve (Xbox Series X)
- Control: Resonant (Xbox Series X)
- Bravely Default: Flying Fairy HD Remaster (Nintendo Switch 2)
- Nintendo Switch Sports Resort (Nintendo Switch 2)
- Final Fantasy Resonance (PlayStation 5)
Also; I’m so so pleased to knock a game off the 2026 List this month, with Sly Raccoon being this month’s game! That just leaves us with 3 games, and whether I can get through them before the big one, remains to be seen:
- Silent Hill Downpour
- Jak and Daxter
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
If I had to pick which one would be next, it’s probably Jak and Daxter due to the Vita port, this PlayStation Vita is coming in super handy.
And, that brings us to the end of the October blog post! We’re back on the normal schedule, and with any luck, there will be a lengthy post for November. I still need to start and finish Control Resonant and Ace Combat 8. Not to mention, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time releases alongside World of Warcraft: Forever, and then on November 19, it’s the big one.
Until then, take care.
Love,
Squashy <3 xo