I'm keeping track of all the VR games I’ve played this year to catalogue them in hopes that they may give fellow VR gamers some fresh games to try out, or reasons to revisit older games that have had big updates. I'm currently up to 52 different VR games played this year. The first 22 that I played from January to March can be found here. The latest 30 games are mostly on the Quest, but many are available on PCVR.
Some of the games listed below, I can see playing all year long, others are not my cup of tea, but they may interest you enough to try them out. In either case, here are my quick thoughts on the 30 games I’ve played during April and May of 2023.
TLDR: My top 5 games to check out are at the bottom and so is some info for a game giveaway.
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1. ARK and ADE $9.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: A fun shooter with Pistol Whip vibes that is absolutely worth the price of admission. From the store page: “ARK and ADE is an action-jammed FPS shooter in which you get to experience the glory of the 80’s arcade era in a neon fused setting. Shoot your way through retro-futuristic levels filled with enemies, iconic over the top bosses and never ending bullets!” I played this game back when it was in App Lab before it graduated to the full store. It was such a fun shooter back then, and I’d look forward to new levels coming out every few months. Now that it made it out of app lab, has a bunch of levels and had the gameplay polished, it’s absolutely worth a pickup, especially for that price.
   
2. Project Third Eye $9.99 Quest My quick take: A game where you make your own fun. From the store page: “Project Third Eye is an action physics sandbox with a built-in visual scripting panel to apply logic to spawnable items. This allows you to build your own modifications to the game and customize behaviors as you like.” Just like the description says, this is more of a proof of concept and sandbox game more so than a full fledged game with objectives. There are certainly neat ideas here and there, and the dev is really active with updates on Reddit. If you like to experiment and see how concepts develop in a game, you may enjoy this, but there’s no real direction beyond experimenting, so I dropped off fairly quickly.
   
3. Jousting VR Demo $9.99 Quest / Steam Quest Demo My quick take: A bit light on gameplay, but there is some charm here. From the store page: “XIII century, Europe, royal market courtyard. You are a knight who joined the medieval tournament. Your task is 'simple.' Jump on your trusty steed, grab your lance & defeat the enemy. Take into consideration speed, accuracy, strength. Equipment is also important. The better gear the easier the task. Oh, and other knights - they want to win as much as you do.” As advertised, it's a jousting game in VR. I enjoyed the demo, but honestly it was a bit too finicky at times and just not worth a full buy to me. The atmosphere was fun though and there was a progression loop for those who get into it.
   
4. Demeo $39.99 Quest and Steam (flatscreen as well) My quick take: This is a great game that I revisited from start to finish with four players. A must own. From the store page: “Adventurers, it’s time to unite! Gather your friends and fight monsters in Demeo, the turn-based tabletop strategy game of battle and glory. Roll dice, pick up miniatures, and free the world of Gilmerra in round after round of tabletop board game fun. With a huge assortment of monsters, playable classes, and environments to explore, it’s never the same game twice." I finally got a chance to play through the entirety of the game in VR with four friends, through each world, while trying a variety of characters. We even made a video ranking the best players and levels. It really is a solid dungeon crawling adventure. With 2 or more friends, this game really shines and is such a fun ride, despite how punishing the bosses can be. This is the closest you can get to D&D in VR without having a dungeon master. Well worth the asking price.
   
5. Build and Drive Racing Demo Free Quest / Steam My quick take: Early days in development, maybe something to keep an eye on to see how it improves. From the store page: "Get ready for a new experience on Windows desktop and VR, where you get to build your ultimate racing machine, tailored to your driving style and optimized for performance, or race to the finish line with a monster what makes you smile. With stylised graphics and arcade-like physics, every turn, straightway and ramp will put your skills to the test. Feel the thrill of the race like never before in VR, as you immerse yourself counting the seconds on the home stretch." An early demo that has seen some updates. Maybe worth looking at in a few months after a bit more development. I did like what I saw, but honestly, if you’re looking for a finished racing game, try Mini Motor Racing X instead or some of the other heavier PCVR games available.
   
6. Les Mills Body Combat $29.99 Quest My quick take: No subscriptions, great coaches and fun workouts that will make you sweat. From the store page: “Work out at home with a premium fitness app. LES MILLS, the world's leading fitness company, brings the BODYCOMBAT experience to your VR headset with an extensive workout portfolio, top-quality coaching, innovative mechanics, and different intensities.” With no subscriptions or hidden fees, lots of workouts, motivating coaches and the ability to compete with friends on leaderboards, this really is a dynamite workout app. I was working up a good sweat during my workouts, so be sure you have good facial insert and a fan ready. Highly recommended if you want a workout in VR for just the price of entry.
   
7. Interkosmos 2000 $19.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: A difficult puzzle game, but rewarding if you have the patience. From the store page: “Go to space. Save the Future. Try not to Die. Welcome (back) to the world of Interkosmos for an even wilder, weirder and more wondrous adventure. Experience the intense exhilaration of spaceflight. Explore the awe-inspiring interiors of a realistic space capsule. Master the crucial systems that will keep you in orbit (and breathing). And while you’re at it, try your best not to die. Should you complete your mission, you just might save the future – and yourself. Should you fail? Let’s not think about that.” An intense puzzle game where you’re piloting a space ship with some very finicky controls. I found the experience way too difficult and exacting. Along with a bit of bugginess, that didn’t help in me determining if the error was my fault or the game's. If you have the patience, there certainly is some rewarding gameplay here, and an interesting story, but I found it all a bit too much to see to the end.
   
8. The Light Brigade $24.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: In a world of rougelikes, this is one that stands out. From the store page: “As a member of The Light Brigade, humanity’s last line of defense, brave ruins bathed in darkness and free the trapped souls who need the salvation only your gun can provide. Shoot, master spells, and upgrade your capabilities to herald the Sun’s return in this roguelike VR shooter.” There’s quite a lot of rouge shooters on Quest and despite the plethora of choices, this one stands out. Be warned, it starts out slowly, but gets quite fun after you get to know the systems after about an hour in. While I did make it to the last boss, I died and never went back to finished it. The gameplay loop and dynamic levels were solid though. The slight upgrades and different classes during each run were interesting and kept me going for a while. The most frustrating time I had was learning the little tips, tricks and finer gameplay points, but it was worth the push through that initial rough patch.
   
9. Resident Evil 4 $39.99 Quest My quick take: One of the best games in VR. A must own. From the store page: “Explore the world of Resident Evil 4, entirely remastered for VR. Step into the shoes of special agent Leon S. Kennedy on his mission to rescue the U.S. President’s daughter who was kidnapped by a mysterious cult. Come face to face with enemies, and uncover secrets with gameplay that revolutionized the survival horror genre. Battle horrific creatures and face-off against mind-controlled villagers while discovering their connection to the cult behind the abduction.” I forgot so much about this game from when I first played it 18 years ago on the GameCube. The long length, fun characters and how exciting the gun play is, all just came together perfectly. The development team spent a ton of time getting the VR feeling just right, and it’s absolutely one of the best on the Quest and well worth the price of entry. Additionally, once you play through the game the first time it really changes from survival horror to a whole new type of game action game. Simply outstanding.
   
10. Mini Golf Hustler Free Quest My quick take: Early days in development. Some good ideas, but a bit too rough around the edges. From the store page: “Challenge Slick Willie Puttman in this FREE nine hole demo of Mini Golf Hustler. Hazards include armed torpedoes, tentacled arms, ornery tikis and more! Multiple betting games, including skins, match play and the fearsome traveling snake. All played at the same time.” I thought I’d check out another mini golf game to see what other ideas there might be outside of the king - Walkabout Mini Golf. While there were some solid ideas for holes, the betting felt uneven, and everything else felt in their very early stages. To be fair, no other mini golf game feels even close to the accuracy of Walkabout, so I think it’s a tough go for any other games to match. It's probably best to stick with the champ for now, but I applaud the dev for trying something different.
    
11. Pin City Free Quest (open beta on Discord) / Steam My quick take: Early days, but wow, worth a download and one to watch in the future. From the store page: "Pin City is a bowling game unlike any other bowling game you’ve played before. We strove to bring the spirit of mini-golf into the world of bowling. We’ve taken the standard bowling setup (straight lane, 10 pins, 1 ball) and expanded, transformed, and evolved it. We wanted to give people a chance to bowl in ways that would be impossible, illegal, or extremely impractical.” An early alpha game, but boy, what a great start, I’m really looking forward to the team getting the physics feeling right with weight and feel of the bowling balls and seeing how much more gameplay they can add. Really worth the download or heading over to their Discord to get a Quest key for free to try it out. The quirky bowling, physics and gameplay they're experimenting with really got me excited to see how this one comes together in the next several months.
    
12. Mash Me Up Free Quest My quick take: Please devs, add more multiplayer support! From the store page: “Do you want to play party games with your friends or meet someone new? All is just one button press away with Mash Me Up. One button, multiple games. Will it be Air Hockey, Pier Pong, Flingball, or… Get ready for a surprise! Press, Play, Enjoy and Go Again!” If this game got a bit more development love it would be incredible. As it stands now, there are several mini games you can play against one person. Most are just okay, but a handful are real gems, and one particularly is incredible - Geo Guesser. Hands down the best mini game in the pack. With four, or six players and some new content, they could easily charge for just this one game. As it stands now, it’s a great two player game, but you’ll need to bring your own friend as the servers are pretty barren. Worth a download though for sure as you’ll get a night of fun out of it.
    
13. THZZLS - Treasures Lost In Time $4.99 Quest My quick take: A unique puzzler that can be pretty relaxing, but repetitive. From the store page: “Our first THZZLE is called "Der Bazar", the world's first VR toy theatre puzzle game. The Bazar is a VR puzzle game where you have to place furniture and props in the right places in old-fashioned rooms according to an old picture you see. The game is set in 19th century Germany and each room has objects taken from the German lifestyle magazine "Der Bazar", published in Berlin.” This one used to be free, with paid content, but it has since changed as they added more content. You recreate a scene with cutouts of people and furniture in a 3D space. It seemed to have endless puzzles with randomization of scenes. I could see someone going to this for a relaxing 10-15 minutes, but it is a lot of the same each time and didn’t grab me fully. If you’re looking for a puzzle game that’s outside of the usual ones you find in the store, it’s not a bad choice for the price. Keep in mind though its hand tracking only, so for some that may be a non starter, even though it felt just fine.
    
14. Barbaria $19.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: What I imagine Gorn is like with a solid game loop of RTS. From the store page: “Do you have what it takes to be the Mightiest in Barbaria? Welcome to a brutal world where visceral motion-controlled combat blends seamlessly with god-scale base-building and asynchronous multiplayer raids. Use fists, axes, swords, bows, rocks, or anything you can grab to dominate your foes in intense 1st-person combat. Then jump out to your immortal form and watch your minions carry on the battle while you rain down meteors from above. Systemic combat, versatile enemy AI, and player-created defenses make every battle unique.” I recognize there is a lot here to do in this game - if you like the game loop. Unfortunately, it really didn’t do much for me. I was expecting more RTS than Gorn style gameplay and was not pulled in by the fighting or quests offered. I have to say that the humor was spot on, and it certainly had good visuals, the game was just not for me. All that being said, there is a lot of content here and you could be playing this for quite some time if you think this could be your jam.
    
15. Toy Monsters Free Quest Demo / $4.99 Quest My quick take: Plants vs Zombies in AR with hand tracking that does enough unique stuff to be worth it. From the store page: “Toy Monsters VR is a mixed-reality tabletop tower defense inspired by classic Plants vs Zombies. Built from the ground up with hand tracking and passthrough in mind. As you progress through the 20 levels, you'll unlock new toys with unique special powers. You can enhance your toys with magical potions and use crystal power to unleash magic beams from your hands, transform your fingers into flamethrowers, and more.” This game has come a long way since its initial release. It’s a solid hand tracking Plants vs. Zombies game with its own twist on powers and uses passthrough quite nicely. My biggest complaint is that you really need to complete the game all in one go (about an hour or so) as it doesn’t keep track of your upgrades if you quit. Essentially, trying to pass a later level without prior upgrades or powerups is near impossible. Despite that one issue, give at least the demo a try and if you like it, the price is pretty fair for what you get.
    
16. Exit Condition One Free Quest Demo / $4.99 Quest My quick take: A bit rough around the edges, but escape room fans will find fun with it. From the store page: “You awake from cryo in a mysterious museum. A robot refers to you as a curator and the security system is malfunctioning. Can you get things back to normal and escape? There are no jump scares. The game is designed ground-up for roomscale VR on the Quest, but supports all locomotion modes. Most objects can be interacted with, it fully uses physics, and the hands don't ‘ghost out.’” According to the description, this is still a work in progress. That being said, it was a neat escape game that I felt I got my money’s worth from. It certainly was a bit rough around the edges with its gameplay and had some obscure puzzles to work through, but I did finish it and had a good time with it. Try the demo for sure, and perhaps when it’s finally finished, some of those rough edges will be polished up, but as it stands now, it was pretty solid.
    
17. Hyperdash Free Quest / Steam My quick take: A solid online shooter, but you'll have to put in the time to get good to find the fun. From the store page: “Hyper Dash is a free VR multiplayer team based shooter. Payload, Domination, Control Point, (Team) Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, Elimination, Ball and remix them with Mutators! Dash, sprint, and rail grind your way across the arenas to engage the enemy in fast-paced combat and secure the objective for your team. Offline mode/Bots, Dedicated servers, Private servers, Rebind-able controls, Left hand support, Voice chat.” For a free to play shooter, this one had great controls, nice graphics, a good gameplay loop, plenty of comfort options and a solid player base. All that being said, every player I faced off against were top tier, so I spent my time just dying round after round. This is a good game with a solid player base and there's fun here - if you’re willing to learn the ropes. It's bad for newbies like me just looking to have a good time and get a few kills.
    
18. Please, Don’t Touch Anything $9.99 Quest / $4.99 Steam My quick take: A game for escape room devotees only. From the store page: "Please, Don’t Touch Anything is a cryptic, brain-racking button-pushing puzzle game. Covering for a colleague taking a bathroom break, you find yourself in front of a mysterious console with a green screen monitor showing a pixelated live image of an unknown city. Also present is an ominous red button with the simple instruction to not touch anything! Push the red button once or press it many times. Your choices and actions will lead to outrageous and frightening consequences and over 30 unique puzzle endings.” This is a weird one. A really obscure puzzle game that rewards experimentation, but is absolutely punishing with difficulty. If you’re really good at escape games and don’t get frustrated easily, you may enjoy the tedium. If not, you’ll end up like me, watching a tutorial to find out how to get different endings. But if you find yourself doing that, why not just watch a playthrough.
    
19. Eleven Table Tennis $29.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: Still one of the best, but there’s so much untapped potential. From the store page: “The ultimate Table Tennis simulator. Play opponents in online multiplayer or practice against the advanced AI. With physics designed to be as real as ever achieved in a Table Tennis simulator, you will forget you are in VR." I finally got back to this game after the new UI was implemented. It looks much more user friendly, but much to my disappointment, there were no new arenas, music, or official doubles options. There is so much potential for expanding this game, and I feel like the devs are just content to have it remain in the state it currently is. Which, to be fair, is a perfect implementation of table tennis in VR. It’s still one of the best VR games out there and absolutely a must own. I just really wish they would add an officially supported doubles mode and expand out the game a bit more because the unofficial doubles mode is a real pain to get set up and only barely worth the struggle. If you'd like to see how to set that doubles up currently, here is a video I was a part of.
    
20. Breachers $29.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: Come one, come all, this is 5 v 5 at its finest. From the store page: “In Breachers, you plan your assault or orchestrate your defense as a team through intense close-quarters combat. Whether you play as an enforcer or a revolter, master your nifty gadgetry, customize your powerful weaponry and beat your opponents in stunning environments. Intuitive to grasp. Endlessly playable.” Wow, wow, wow. This officially launched and is such a polished game. With multiple maps, intuitive movement and full lobbies, this game is simply spectacular. Despite the difficulty curve in being good at the game, it’s still a fun time even if you’re not the best, which is something special that few games manage to pull off. Where this game especially shines is with friends. If you can muster up a team of five to take on other random players, you’ll be playing this game for months. Give this a go, and if you're not any good, that's okay, because you'll still be better than the bots and a welcome addition to someone's team.
    
21. Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Outcast (Sidequest mod) Free Demo on Quest / $9.99 (Full Game on Steam) My quick take: Come for the lightsaber play, stay if you can tolerate the puzzles. From the store page: “JK XR is a standalone VR port of the popular Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast game by Lucasarts and Raven Software. Brought to VR by Team Beef & Friends. There are lots of mods and access to the free demo level available through the JK XR Companion App, which is automatically also installed alongside JK XR on your headset.” I never played this game when it first came out on flatscreen in 2002, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The first part of the game you’re playing essentially as a Han Solo type - a smart talkin’ gun slinger. The next part, you’re a cool Jedi chopping off limbs. Absolutely great execution as always by Team Beef, and you can’t beat the price. There is even a free demo to try out to see if you like it. All that being said, the game’s old puzzles, navigation and gameplay felt every bit of 20 years old. After dying multiple times because of missing an exact jump, getting lost and backtracking because I didn't see an obscure elevator and wasting time trying to navigate odd puzzles, I just found it to be too much to overcome to continue to the end. This is no slight on Team Beef and the great work they did with this port, the game just hasn’t aged the best.
    
22. CoasterMania $9.99 Quest My quick take: Early days, but still some fun to be had. There could be something special here after a few updates. From the store page: “CoasterMania is a physics-based VR rollercoaster game where you create the ride of your life! Use wacky contraptions and elements to fly through the sky, then experience your creation by jumping in the front seat. Sandbox mode: Build your dream rollercoaster without any rules but the rules of physics. When you're done, share your coaster or experience the engineering marvels of others. Design your own rides and upload them online.” You know, this game is just silly fun. It's early days for sure, and the tracks don't twist and come together as easily together as I’d hoped, which makes for a difficult time creating exactly what you want. It is satisfying though to have a roller coaster leap from one track to another over a gap. At this point the game is more of a sandbox than a full game with objectives (which is coming). The coasters other people have created are fun, so if you’re not into creating, there is that option to play with other people's designs, plus you can ride them in first person. I look forward to more updates and think it's worth looking at for sure, but if you’re looking for something a bit more fleshed out currently you can try Stunt Track Builder.
    
23. David Slade Mysteries: Case Files $9.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: You’re a forensic cop, here are your tools. Good luck dummy. From the store page: “Take to the dark and violent streets of downtown Riverside, where you investigate gruesome and violent homicides using a range of Forensic tools and your wits! Inspired by the classic Police Quest adventure series, reborn & reimagined for VR. Includes two epic episodes!” Slade is a murder mystery game that is ruthless in it’s difficulty. Honestly, there are several play throughs of this game on YouTube and none have beaten the first case because it was too hard, they all gave up. This game offers no hints, is super abstract and insanely difficult. Why did I keep playing? Well, the game’s tools were implemented quite well, the story was compelling, and I just felt I had to see this through to the end for my own sanity. Despite being as hard as nails, I somehow managed to finish the first case, then moved on to the second. No real spoilers, but the second case does a complete 180 and essentially becomes a horror game where you’re only weapon is your wits. A real departure from the first case. Again, I found myself frustrated, confused and turned around, but again, I had to power through it because something kept pulling me in. If you’re a masochist for puzzle games, I’d recommend this game.
    
24. Home Detective Free w/IAP - Quest My quick take: Fun use of AR, but pretty basic. From the store page: “Use your own living room to solve the crime! Using passthrough, the crime scene is overlaid onto your play area, leaving you free to explore and find clues. Use the patent-pending Residual Heat Scanner to detect the criminals' recent movements, and then dust for fingerprints or try to find evidence left behind. With your wits, and your trusty sidekick Steve Dobbins' snarky comments, you're sure to get to the bottom of these confusing crimes.” I appreciate the interesting use of passthrough and AR in this game. The first case is free to try, so if you’re into AR and passthrough, it’s worth a try. It's $3.99 for another case if you’re into it, but right now, it’s a pretty basic, but solid idea. My biggest complaint is that all my tools were on a shelf that was inaccessible because they were in my wall. I guess AR is still not quite there yet.
    
25. Vertigo Remastered $24.99 Steam My quick take: A fun and wacky ride from start to finish. From the store page: “It's a classic premise - a massive subterranean scientific facility full of mysteries, with aliens bursting in from alternate universes to wreak havoc. The twist? You're one of those aliens. But you're not here to wreak havoc (collateral damage disregarded), you're just trying to get home. A difficult endeavor, as it turns out this facility is more than prepared to deal with extraterrestrial threats.” Because I heard such great things about Vertigo 2, I thought I’d try out this game before I played the sequel. I was really blown away by how fun the game was and pleasantly surprised that it holds up so well. Considering its a 2016 remake, and VR was still figuring out a lot of things like movement, this still felt fresh. With lots of unique ideas, upgrades and areas to play in, I heartily recommend this one and am looking forward to playing the sequel.
    
26. Playin’ Pickleball $19.99 Quest My quick take: Solid physics, but really only for pickleball fans, or a group of four friends. From the store page: “Playin’ Pickleball is an authentic reproduction of Pickleball in Virtual Reality! Physics, sounds and mechanics have been carefully mapped from actual Pickleball game play. Even the scoring and rules are based on the USA Pickleball Association’s Official Rulebook.” Pickleball is sweeping the nation and if I recall correctly, even ForeVR is getting in on the game with an upcoming title. I’m much more of a tennis than pickleball guy, but I have to say, this game has pretty solid physics. Like most games, this is exponentially better with one or better yet, three other people you know. The AI players can be pretty uninteresting hitting it back and forth without much variance. Also the environments are a bit basic. I have to applaud the movement, physics and customizable items though as they all felt very well implemented. If you want something a bit less daunting than tennis, this might be what you're looking for.
    
27. Pong $6.99 Quest My quick take: A neat take on Pong, but you’ll have more fun with Cybrix. From the store page: “Classic paddle game reimagined for VR. Destroy all the bricks. Use your paddles to swing at the balls and the balls have built-in assistance to return back toward you. Take advantage of the pistol and magneto power-ups to cause major damage. Or just swing hard at the balls to create large blast radius. Oh and watch out for those mines going for your head. Lean left/right or crouch to avoid.” I appreciated the ideas the developers had in this modern take on Pong, but it was ultimately quite short and not nearly as fun as Cybrix. That being said for the price, I got my money’s worth and would love to see it get a bit more polish and levels in an update.
    
28. Extreme Escape $4.99 Quest / Steam (Early Access) My quick take: One of those special games where you really feel like you're in the environment. From the store page: “Have you ever wondered how it would feel to travel in a hot air balloon and fly above clouds? Have you ever wanted to face your fear of heights and enclosed spaces? Perhaps you wanted to become a pilot and test your critical thinking skills. Looking for a breathtaking experience? Try Extreme Escape.” The game says “early access,” but honestly I believe this has been abandoned. For the price, you get an extremely short, but fun and unique escape room experience. You’re not going to find this game too hard, but I was brought into its world and completely immersed - I had a true sense of dread and panic. The even shorter “demo” inside the game puts you on a sinking submarine and was extremely memorable. Seldom have I felt so immersed in a game. I’d recommend it for this price, just because of how it made me feel, but it’s a real shame about the very short length and that it’s abandoned.
    
29. The Last Worker $19.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: Gaming with a heavy message, but mediocre gameplay. From the store page: “The Last Worker is an immersive narrative adventure centered around a lone worker’s last stand in an increasingly automated world, The Last Worker is a unique blend of work simulation and stealth strategic gameplay. The game is set in a lonely, oppressive but strangely beautiful environment, with characters designed by comics legend Mick McMahon. Kurt works for the world’s largest retailer and is forced to choose between capitalism or activism. Having dedicated his life to work, Kurt’s loyalty is put to the test when a group of activists ask him to dismantle Jüngle from the inside.” I really wanted to like this game. It had an interesting concept, but navigating, fail states and some very annoying bugs frustrated me to the point where I just said it wasn’t worth my time. That and the story wasn’t speaking to me. It’s well rated, so I’m probably on the opposite side of this one from most people. It's unique in many ways, so check out the teaser and see if it might be for you.
    
30. Shadow Point $19.99 Quest My quick take: Fisherman’s Tale vibes with an excellent story and puzzles that makes you feel smart. From the store page: “Built for VR, Shadow Point is a story-driven puzzle game set between a mountaintop observatory and an ever-changing fantasy world. Explore a vibrant kingdom, cast shadows and solve mind-bending puzzles as you uncover the mystery of missing schoolgirl, Lorna McCabe who vanished from Shadow Point Observatory twelve years ago. As your adventure unfolds, you will manipulate gravity, play with your own reflection, walk on walls, peer through a magical lens to reveal an alternate reality and much more.” I had this game on my wishlist forever and finally pulled the trigger, and boy am I glad I did. I really enjoyed the story, gameplay and ended up marathoning it in one session (which I don't recommend doing). It is a few hours long, and there are extra puzzles to go back to if you’d like. It had some serious Fisherman’s Tale vibes, so if you like those type of puzzle games, this is for you. The puzzles make you stop and think, and more importantly, progress nicely. I was never stuck, but certainly had to really contemplate how to solve some of them. It is slightly finicky with having to line up the shadows exactly to progress, but that is a minor complaint. Give this one a go for sure.
    

I hope you find a few games on this list that you might not have heard of, or that you might find worth revisiting. Let me know here or on the Ruff Talk Discord channel if you have a game you enjoy that I should try, I'm always open to recommendations. Until then, I hope your next VR experience is a memorable one.
Also, the week this is posted, I'm hosting a contest where one winner gets a $29.99 or less, Quest game of their choice. You can enter on the discord channel above, but will need to have five posts on the discord channel within a week to enter, so if that interests you, feel free to join. The Ruff Talk guys usually have giveaways every week and it's some solid VR chat if you're looking for like-minded individuals in a non-toxic space.
TLDR: Top five games to check out - Ark and Ade, Pin City, Breachers, Shadow Point, Vertigo Remastered

I'm keeping track of all the VR games I’ve played this year to catalogue them in hopes that they may give fellow VR gamers some fresh games to try out, or reasons to revisit older games that have had big updates. I'm currently up to 52 different VR games played this year. The first 22 that I played from January to March can be found here. The latest 30 games are mostly on the Quest, but many are available on PCVR.
Some of the games listed below, I can see playing all year long, others are not my cup of tea, but they may interest you enough to try them out. In either case, here are my quick thoughts on the 30 games I’ve played during April and May of 2023.
TLDR: My top 5 games to check out are at the bottom and so is some info for a game giveaway.
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1. ARK and ADE $9.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: A fun shooter with Pistol Whip vibes that is absolutely worth the price of admission. From the store page: “ARK and ADE is an action-jammed FPS shooter in which you get to experience the glory of the 80’s arcade era in a neon fused setting. Shoot your way through retro-futuristic levels filled with enemies, iconic over the top bosses and never ending bullets!” I played this game back when it was in App Lab before it graduated to the full store. It was such a fun shooter back then, and I’d look forward to new levels coming out every few months. Now that it made it out of app lab, has a bunch of levels and had the gameplay polished, it’s absolutely worth a pickup, especially for that price.
   
2. Project Third Eye $9.99 Quest My quick take: A game where you make your own fun. From the store page: “Project Third Eye is an action physics sandbox with a built-in visual scripting panel to apply logic to spawnable items. This allows you to build your own modifications to the game and customize behaviors as you like.” Just like the description says, this is more of a proof of concept and sandbox game more so than a full fledged game with objectives. There are certainly neat ideas here and there, and the dev is really active with updates on Reddit. If you like to experiment and see how concepts develop in a game, you may enjoy this, but there’s no real direction beyond experimenting, so I dropped off fairly quickly.
   
3. Jousting VR Demo $9.99 Quest / Steam Quest Demo My quick take: A bit light on gameplay, but there is some charm here. From the store page: “XIII century, Europe, royal market courtyard. You are a knight who joined the medieval tournament. Your task is 'simple.' Jump on your trusty steed, grab your lance & defeat the enemy. Take into consideration speed, accuracy, strength. Equipment is also important. The better gear the easier the task. Oh, and other knights - they want to win as much as you do.” As advertised, it's a jousting game in VR. I enjoyed the demo, but honestly it was a bit too finicky at times and just not worth a full buy to me. The atmosphere was fun though and there was a progression loop for those who get into it.
   
4. Demeo $39.99 Quest and Steam (flatscreen as well) My quick take: This is a great game that I revisited from start to finish with four players. A must own. From the store page: “Adventurers, it’s time to unite! Gather your friends and fight monsters in Demeo, the turn-based tabletop strategy game of battle and glory. Roll dice, pick up miniatures, and free the world of Gilmerra in round after round of tabletop board game fun. With a huge assortment of monsters, playable classes, and environments to explore, it’s never the same game twice." I finally got a chance to play through the entirety of the game in VR with four friends, through each world, while trying a variety of characters. We even made a video ranking the best players and levels. It really is a solid dungeon crawling adventure. With 2 or more friends, this game really shines and is such a fun ride, despite how punishing the bosses can be. This is the closest you can get to D&D in VR without having a dungeon master. Well worth the asking price.
   
5. Build and Drive Racing Demo Free Quest / Steam My quick take: Early days in development, maybe something to keep an eye on to see how it improves. From the store page: "Get ready for a new experience on Windows desktop and VR, where you get to build your ultimate racing machine, tailored to your driving style and optimized for performance, or race to the finish line with a monster what makes you smile. With stylised graphics and arcade-like physics, every turn, straightway and ramp will put your skills to the test. Feel the thrill of the race like never before in VR, as you immerse yourself counting the seconds on the home stretch." An early demo that has seen some updates. Maybe worth looking at in a few months after a bit more development. I did like what I saw, but honestly, if you’re looking for a finished racing game, try Mini Motor Racing X instead or some of the other heavier PCVR games available.
   
6. Les Mills Body Combat $29.99 Quest My quick take: No subscriptions, great coaches and fun workouts that will make you sweat. From the store page: “Work out at home with a premium fitness app. LES MILLS, the world's leading fitness company, brings the BODYCOMBAT experience to your VR headset with an extensive workout portfolio, top-quality coaching, innovative mechanics, and different intensities.” With no subscriptions or hidden fees, lots of workouts, motivating coaches and the ability to compete with friends on leaderboards, this really is a dynamite workout app. I was working up a good sweat during my workouts, so be sure you have good facial insert and a fan ready. Highly recommended if you want a workout in VR for just the price of entry.
   
7. Interkosmos 2000 $19.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: A difficult puzzle game, but rewarding if you have the patience. From the store page: “Go to space. Save the Future. Try not to Die. Welcome (back) to the world of Interkosmos for an even wilder, weirder and more wondrous adventure. Experience the intense exhilaration of spaceflight. Explore the awe-inspiring interiors of a realistic space capsule. Master the crucial systems that will keep you in orbit (and breathing). And while you’re at it, try your best not to die. Should you complete your mission, you just might save the future – and yourself. Should you fail? Let’s not think about that.” An intense puzzle game where you’re piloting a space ship with some very finicky controls. I found the experience way too difficult and exacting. Along with a bit of bugginess, that didn’t help in me determining if the error was my fault or the game's. If you have the patience, there certainly is some rewarding gameplay here, and an interesting story, but I found it all a bit too much to see to the end.
   
8. The Light Brigade $24.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: In a world of rougelikes, this is one that stands out. From the store page: “As a member of The Light Brigade, humanity’s last line of defense, brave ruins bathed in darkness and free the trapped souls who need the salvation only your gun can provide. Shoot, master spells, and upgrade your capabilities to herald the Sun’s return in this roguelike VR shooter.” There’s quite a lot of rouge shooters on Quest and despite the plethora of choices, this one stands out. Be warned, it starts out slowly, but gets quite fun after you get to know the systems after about an hour in. While I did make it to the last boss, I died and never went back to finished it. The gameplay loop and dynamic levels were solid though. The slight upgrades and different classes during each run were interesting and kept me going for a while. The most frustrating time I had was learning the little tips, tricks and finer gameplay points, but it was worth the push through that initial rough patch.
   
9. Resident Evil 4 $39.99 Quest My quick take: One of the best games in VR. A must own. From the store page: “Explore the world of Resident Evil 4, entirely remastered for VR. Step into the shoes of special agent Leon S. Kennedy on his mission to rescue the U.S. President’s daughter who was kidnapped by a mysterious cult. Come face to face with enemies, and uncover secrets with gameplay that revolutionized the survival horror genre. Battle horrific creatures and face-off against mind-controlled villagers while discovering their connection to the cult behind the abduction.” I forgot so much about this game from when I first played it 18 years ago on the GameCube. The long length, fun characters and how exciting the gun play is, all just came together perfectly. The development team spent a ton of time getting the VR feeling just right, and it’s absolutely one of the best on the Quest and well worth the price of entry. Additionally, once you play through the game the first time it really changes from survival horror to a whole new type of game action game. Simply outstanding.
   
10. Mini Golf Hustler Free Quest My quick take: Early days in development. Some good ideas, but a bit too rough around the edges. From the store page: “Challenge Slick Willie Puttman in this FREE nine hole demo of Mini Golf Hustler. Hazards include armed torpedoes, tentacled arms, ornery tikis and more! Multiple betting games, including skins, match play and the fearsome traveling snake. All played at the same time.” I thought I’d check out another mini golf game to see what other ideas there might be outside of the king - Walkabout Mini Golf. While there were some solid ideas for holes, the betting felt uneven, and everything else felt in their very early stages. To be fair, no other mini golf game feels even close to the accuracy of Walkabout, so I think it’s a tough go for any other games to match. It's probably best to stick with the champ for now, but I applaud the dev for trying something different.
    
11. Pin City Free Quest (open beta on Discord) / Steam My quick take: Early days, but wow, worth a download and one to watch in the future. From the store page: "Pin City is a bowling game unlike any other bowling game you’ve played before. We strove to bring the spirit of mini-golf into the world of bowling. We’ve taken the standard bowling setup (straight lane, 10 pins, 1 ball) and expanded, transformed, and evolved it. We wanted to give people a chance to bowl in ways that would be impossible, illegal, or extremely impractical.” An early alpha game, but boy, what a great start, I’m really looking forward to the team getting the physics feeling right with weight and feel of the bowling balls and seeing how much more gameplay they can add. Really worth the download or heading over to their Discord to get a Quest key for free to try it out. The quirky bowling, physics and gameplay they're experimenting with really got me excited to see how this one comes together in the next several months.
    
12. Mash Me Up Free Quest My quick take: Please devs, add more multiplayer support! From the store page: “Do you want to play party games with your friends or meet someone new? All is just one button press away with Mash Me Up. One button, multiple games. Will it be Air Hockey, Pier Pong, Flingball, or… Get ready for a surprise! Press, Play, Enjoy and Go Again!” If this game got a bit more development love it would be incredible. As it stands now, there are several mini games you can play against one person. Most are just okay, but a handful are real gems, and one particularly is incredible - Geo Guesser. Hands down the best mini game in the pack. With four, or six players and some new content, they could easily charge for just this one game. As it stands now, it’s a great two player game, but you’ll need to bring your own friend as the servers are pretty barren. Worth a download though for sure as you’ll get a night of fun out of it.
    
13. THZZLS - Treasures Lost In Time $4.99 Quest My quick take: A unique puzzler that can be pretty relaxing, but repetitive. From the store page: “Our first THZZLE is called "Der Bazar", the world's first VR toy theatre puzzle game. The Bazar is a VR puzzle game where you have to place furniture and props in the right places in old-fashioned rooms according to an old picture you see. The game is set in 19th century Germany and each room has objects taken from the German lifestyle magazine "Der Bazar", published in Berlin.” This one used to be free, with paid content, but it has since changed as they added more content. You recreate a scene with cutouts of people and furniture in a 3D space. It seemed to have endless puzzles with randomization of scenes. I could see someone going to this for a relaxing 10-15 minutes, but it is a lot of the same each time and didn’t grab me fully. If you’re looking for a puzzle game that’s outside of the usual ones you find in the store, it’s not a bad choice for the price. Keep in mind though its hand tracking only, so for some that may be a non starter, even though it felt just fine.
    
14. Barbaria $19.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: What I imagine Gorn is like with a solid game loop of RTS. From the store page: “Do you have what it takes to be the Mightiest in Barbaria? Welcome to a brutal world where visceral motion-controlled combat blends seamlessly with god-scale base-building and asynchronous multiplayer raids. Use fists, axes, swords, bows, rocks, or anything you can grab to dominate your foes in intense 1st-person combat. Then jump out to your immortal form and watch your minions carry on the battle while you rain down meteors from above. Systemic combat, versatile enemy AI, and player-created defenses make every battle unique.” I recognize there is a lot here to do in this game - if you like the game loop. Unfortunately, it really didn’t do much for me. I was expecting more RTS than Gorn style gameplay and was not pulled in by the fighting or quests offered. I have to say that the humor was spot on, and it certainly had good visuals, the game was just not for me. All that being said, there is a lot of content here and you could be playing this for quite some time if you think this could be your jam.
    
15. Toy Monsters Free Quest Demo / $4.99 Quest My quick take: Plants vs Zombies in AR with hand tracking that does enough unique stuff to be worth it. From the store page: “Toy Monsters VR is a mixed-reality tabletop tower defense inspired by classic Plants vs Zombies. Built from the ground up with hand tracking and passthrough in mind. As you progress through the 20 levels, you'll unlock new toys with unique special powers. You can enhance your toys with magical potions and use crystal power to unleash magic beams from your hands, transform your fingers into flamethrowers, and more.” This game has come a long way since its initial release. It’s a solid hand tracking Plants vs. Zombies game with its own twist on powers and uses passthrough quite nicely. My biggest complaint is that you really need to complete the game all in one go (about an hour or so) as it doesn’t keep track of your upgrades if you quit. Essentially, trying to pass a later level without prior upgrades or powerups is near impossible. Despite that one issue, give at least the demo a try and if you like it, the price is pretty fair for what you get.
    
16. Exit Condition One Free Quest Demo / $4.99 Quest My quick take: A bit rough around the edges, but escape room fans will find fun with it. From the store page: “You awake from cryo in a mysterious museum. A robot refers to you as a curator and the security system is malfunctioning. Can you get things back to normal and escape? There are no jump scares. The game is designed ground-up for roomscale VR on the Quest, but supports all locomotion modes. Most objects can be interacted with, it fully uses physics, and the hands don't ‘ghost out.’” According to the description, this is still a work in progress. That being said, it was a neat escape game that I felt I got my money’s worth from. It certainly was a bit rough around the edges with its gameplay and had some obscure puzzles to work through, but I did finish it and had a good time with it. Try the demo for sure, and perhaps when it’s finally finished, some of those rough edges will be polished up, but as it stands now, it was pretty solid.
    
17. Hyperdash Free Quest / Steam My quick take: A solid online shooter, but you'll have to put in the time to get good to find the fun. From the store page: “Hyper Dash is a free VR multiplayer team based shooter. Payload, Domination, Control Point, (Team) Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, Elimination, Ball and remix them with Mutators! Dash, sprint, and rail grind your way across the arenas to engage the enemy in fast-paced combat and secure the objective for your team. Offline mode/Bots, Dedicated servers, Private servers, Rebind-able controls, Left hand support, Voice chat.” For a free to play shooter, this one had great controls, nice graphics, a good gameplay loop, plenty of comfort options and a solid player base. All that being said, every player I faced off against were top tier, so I spent my time just dying round after round. This is a good game with a solid player base and there's fun here - if you’re willing to learn the ropes. It's bad for newbies like me just looking to have a good time and get a few kills.
    
18. Please, Don’t Touch Anything $9.99 Quest / $4.99 Steam My quick take: A game for escape room devotees only. From the store page: "Please, Don’t Touch Anything is a cryptic, brain-racking button-pushing puzzle game. Covering for a colleague taking a bathroom break, you find yourself in front of a mysterious console with a green screen monitor showing a pixelated live image of an unknown city. Also present is an ominous red button with the simple instruction to not touch anything! Push the red button once or press it many times. Your choices and actions will lead to outrageous and frightening consequences and over 30 unique puzzle endings.” This is a weird one. A really obscure puzzle game that rewards experimentation, but is absolutely punishing with difficulty. If you’re really good at escape games and don’t get frustrated easily, you may enjoy the tedium. If not, you’ll end up like me, watching a tutorial to find out how to get different endings. But if you find yourself doing that, why not just watch a playthrough.
    
19. Eleven Table Tennis $29.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: Still one of the best, but there’s so much untapped potential. From the store page: “The ultimate Table Tennis simulator. Play opponents in online multiplayer or practice against the advanced AI. With physics designed to be as real as ever achieved in a Table Tennis simulator, you will forget you are in VR." I finally got back to this game after the new UI was implemented. It looks much more user friendly, but much to my disappointment, there were no new arenas, music, or official doubles options. There is so much potential for expanding this game, and I feel like the devs are just content to have it remain in the state it currently is. Which, to be fair, is a perfect implementation of table tennis in VR. It’s still one of the best VR games out there and absolutely a must own. I just really wish they would add an officially supported doubles mode and expand out the game a bit more because the unofficial doubles mode is a real pain to get set up and only barely worth the struggle. If you'd like to see how to set that doubles up currently, here is a video I was a part of.
    
20. Breachers $29.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: Come one, come all, this is 5 v 5 at its finest. From the store page: “In Breachers, you plan your assault or orchestrate your defense as a team through intense close-quarters combat. Whether you play as an enforcer or a revolter, master your nifty gadgetry, customize your powerful weaponry and beat your opponents in stunning environments. Intuitive to grasp. Endlessly playable.” Wow, wow, wow. This officially launched and is such a polished game. With multiple maps, intuitive movement and full lobbies, this game is simply spectacular. Despite the difficulty curve in being good at the game, it’s still a fun time even if you’re not the best, which is something special that few games manage to pull off. Where this game especially shines is with friends. If you can muster up a team of five to take on other random players, you’ll be playing this game for months. Give this a go, and if you're not any good, that's okay, because you'll still be better than the bots and a welcome addition to someone's team.
    
21. Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Outcast (Sidequest mod) Free Demo on Quest / $9.99 (Full Game on Steam) My quick take: Come for the lightsaber play, stay if you can tolerate the puzzles. From the store page: “JK XR is a standalone VR port of the popular Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast game by Lucasarts and Raven Software. Brought to VR by Team Beef & Friends. There are lots of mods and access to the free demo level available through the JK XR Companion App, which is automatically also installed alongside JK XR on your headset.” I never played this game when it first came out on flatscreen in 2002, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The first part of the game you’re playing essentially as a Han Solo type - a smart talkin’ gun slinger. The next part, you’re a cool Jedi chopping off limbs. Absolutely great execution as always by Team Beef, and you can’t beat the price. There is even a free demo to try out to see if you like it. All that being said, the game’s old puzzles, navigation and gameplay felt every bit of 20 years old. After dying multiple times because of missing an exact jump, getting lost and backtracking because I didn't see an obscure elevator and wasting time trying to navigate odd puzzles, I just found it to be too much to overcome to continue to the end. This is no slight on Team Beef and the great work they did with this port, the game just hasn’t aged the best.
    
22. CoasterMania $9.99 Quest My quick take: Early days, but still some fun to be had. There could be something special here after a few updates. From the store page: “CoasterMania is a physics-based VR rollercoaster game where you create the ride of your life! Use wacky contraptions and elements to fly through the sky, then experience your creation by jumping in the front seat. Sandbox mode: Build your dream rollercoaster without any rules but the rules of physics. When you're done, share your coaster or experience the engineering marvels of others. Design your own rides and upload them online.” You know, this game is just silly fun. It's early days for sure, and the tracks don't twist and come together as easily together as I’d hoped, which makes for a difficult time creating exactly what you want. It is satisfying though to have a roller coaster leap from one track to another over a gap. At this point the game is more of a sandbox than a full game with objectives (which is coming). The coasters other people have created are fun, so if you’re not into creating, there is that option to play with other people's designs, plus you can ride them in first person. I look forward to more updates and think it's worth looking at for sure, but if you’re looking for something a bit more fleshed out currently you can try Stunt Track Builder.
    
23. David Slade Mysteries: Case Files $9.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: You’re a forensic cop, here are your tools. Good luck dummy. From the store page: “Take to the dark and violent streets of downtown Riverside, where you investigate gruesome and violent homicides using a range of Forensic tools and your wits! Inspired by the classic Police Quest adventure series, reborn & reimagined for VR. Includes two epic episodes!” Slade is a murder mystery game that is ruthless in it’s difficulty. Honestly, there are several play throughs of this game on YouTube and none have beaten the first case because it was too hard, they all gave up. This game offers no hints, is super abstract and insanely difficult. Why did I keep playing? Well, the game’s tools were implemented quite well, the story was compelling, and I just felt I had to see this through to the end for my own sanity. Despite being as hard as nails, I somehow managed to finish the first case, then moved on to the second. No real spoilers, but the second case does a complete 180 and essentially becomes a horror game where you’re only weapon is your wits. A real departure from the first case. Again, I found myself frustrated, confused and turned around, but again, I had to power through it because something kept pulling me in. If you’re a masochist for puzzle games, I’d recommend this game.
    
24. Home Detective Free w/IAP - Quest My quick take: Fun use of AR, but pretty basic. From the store page: “Use your own living room to solve the crime! Using passthrough, the crime scene is overlaid onto your play area, leaving you free to explore and find clues. Use the patent-pending Residual Heat Scanner to detect the criminals' recent movements, and then dust for fingerprints or try to find evidence left behind. With your wits, and your trusty sidekick Steve Dobbins' snarky comments, you're sure to get to the bottom of these confusing crimes.” I appreciate the interesting use of passthrough and AR in this game. The first case is free to try, so if you’re into AR and passthrough, it’s worth a try. It's $3.99 for another case if you’re into it, but right now, it’s a pretty basic, but solid idea. My biggest complaint is that all my tools were on a shelf that was inaccessible because they were in my wall. I guess AR is still not quite there yet.
    
25. Vertigo Remastered $24.99 Steam My quick take: A fun and wacky ride from start to finish. From the store page: “It's a classic premise - a massive subterranean scientific facility full of mysteries, with aliens bursting in from alternate universes to wreak havoc. The twist? You're one of those aliens. But you're not here to wreak havoc (collateral damage disregarded), you're just trying to get home. A difficult endeavor, as it turns out this facility is more than prepared to deal with extraterrestrial threats.” Because I heard such great things about Vertigo 2, I thought I’d try out this game before I played the sequel. I was really blown away by how fun the game was and pleasantly surprised that it holds up so well. Considering its a 2016 remake, and VR was still figuring out a lot of things like movement, this still felt fresh. With lots of unique ideas, upgrades and areas to play in, I heartily recommend this one and am looking forward to playing the sequel.
    
26. Playin’ Pickleball $19.99 Quest My quick take: Solid physics, but really only for pickleball fans, or a group of four friends. From the store page: “Playin’ Pickleball is an authentic reproduction of Pickleball in Virtual Reality! Physics, sounds and mechanics have been carefully mapped from actual Pickleball game play. Even the scoring and rules are based on the USA Pickleball Association’s Official Rulebook.” Pickleball is sweeping the nation and if I recall correctly, even ForeVR is getting in on the game with an upcoming title. I’m much more of a tennis than pickleball guy, but I have to say, this game has pretty solid physics. Like most games, this is exponentially better with one or better yet, three other people you know. The AI players can be pretty uninteresting hitting it back and forth without much variance. Also the environments are a bit basic. I have to applaud the movement, physics and customizable items though as they all felt very well implemented. If you want something a bit less daunting than tennis, this might be what you're looking for.
    
27. Pong $6.99 Quest My quick take: A neat take on Pong, but you’ll have more fun with Cybrix. From the store page: “Classic paddle game reimagined for VR. Destroy all the bricks. Use your paddles to swing at the balls and the balls have built-in assistance to return back toward you. Take advantage of the pistol and magneto power-ups to cause major damage. Or just swing hard at the balls to create large blast radius. Oh and watch out for those mines going for your head. Lean left/right or crouch to avoid.” I appreciated the ideas the developers had in this modern take on Pong, but it was ultimately quite short and not nearly as fun as Cybrix. That being said for the price, I got my money’s worth and would love to see it get a bit more polish and levels in an update.
    
28. Extreme Escape $4.99 Quest / Steam (Early Access) My quick take: One of those special games where you really feel like you're in the environment. From the store page: “Have you ever wondered how it would feel to travel in a hot air balloon and fly above clouds? Have you ever wanted to face your fear of heights and enclosed spaces? Perhaps you wanted to become a pilot and test your critical thinking skills. Looking for a breathtaking experience? Try Extreme Escape.” The game says “early access,” but honestly I believe this has been abandoned. For the price, you get an extremely short, but fun and unique escape room experience. You’re not going to find this game too hard, but I was brought into its world and completely immersed - I had a true sense of dread and panic. The even shorter “demo” inside the game puts you on a sinking submarine and was extremely memorable. Seldom have I felt so immersed in a game. I’d recommend it for this price, just because of how it made me feel, but it’s a real shame about the very short length and that it’s abandoned.
    
29. The Last Worker $19.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: Gaming with a heavy message, but mediocre gameplay. From the store page: “The Last Worker is an immersive narrative adventure centered around a lone worker’s last stand in an increasingly automated world, The Last Worker is a unique blend of work simulation and stealth strategic gameplay. The game is set in a lonely, oppressive but strangely beautiful environment, with characters designed by comics legend Mick McMahon. Kurt works for the world’s largest retailer and is forced to choose between capitalism or activism. Having dedicated his life to work, Kurt’s loyalty is put to the test when a group of activists ask him to dismantle Jüngle from the inside.” I really wanted to like this game. It had an interesting concept, but navigating, fail states and some very annoying bugs frustrated me to the point where I just said it wasn’t worth my time. That and the story wasn’t speaking to me. It’s well rated, so I’m probably on the opposite side of this one from most people. It's unique in many ways, so check out the teaser and see if it might be for you.
    
30. Shadow Point $19.99 Quest My quick take: Fisherman’s Tale vibes with an excellent story and puzzles that makes you feel smart. From the store page: “Built for VR, Shadow Point is a story-driven puzzle game set between a mountaintop observatory and an ever-changing fantasy world. Explore a vibrant kingdom, cast shadows and solve mind-bending puzzles as you uncover the mystery of missing schoolgirl, Lorna McCabe who vanished from Shadow Point Observatory twelve years ago. As your adventure unfolds, you will manipulate gravity, play with your own reflection, walk on walls, peer through a magical lens to reveal an alternate reality and much more.” I had this game on my wishlist forever and finally pulled the trigger, and boy am I glad I did. I really enjoyed the story, gameplay and ended up marathoning it in one session (which I don't recommend doing). It is a few hours long, and there are extra puzzles to go back to if you’d like. It had some serious Fisherman’s Tale vibes, so if you like those type of puzzle games, this is for you. The puzzles make you stop and think, and more importantly, progress nicely. I was never stuck, but certainly had to really contemplate how to solve some of them. It is slightly finicky with having to line up the shadows exactly to progress, but that is a minor complaint. Give this one a go for sure.
    

I hope you find a few games on this list that you might not have heard of, or that you might find worth revisiting. Let me know here or on the Ruff Talk Discord channel if you have a game you enjoy that I should try, I'm always open to recommendations. Until then, I hope your next VR experience is a memorable one.
Also, the week this is posted, I'm hosting a contest where one winner gets a $29.99 or less, Quest game of their choice. You can enter on the discord channel above, but will need to have five posts on the discord channel within a week to enter, so if that interests you, feel free to join. The Ruff Talk guys usually have giveaways every week and it's some solid VR chat if you're looking for like-minded individuals in a non-toxic space.
TLDR: Top five games to check out - Ark and Ade, Pin City, Breachers, Shadow Point, Vertigo Remastered

I'm keeping track of all the VR games I’ve played this year to catalogue them in hopes that they may give fellow VR gamers some fresh games to try out, or reasons to revisit older games that have had big updates. I'm currently up to 52 different VR games played this year. The first 22 that I played from January to March can be found here. The latest 30 games are mostly on the Quest, but many are available on PCVR.
Some of the games listed below, I can see playing all year long, others are not my cup of tea, but they may interest you enough to try them out. In either case, here are my quick thoughts on the 30 games I’ve played during April and May of 2023.
TLDR: My top 5 games to check out are at the bottom and so is some info for a game giveaway.
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1. ARK and ADE $9.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: A fun shooter with Pistol Whip vibes that is absolutely worth the price of admission. From the store page: “ARK and ADE is an action-jammed FPS shooter in which you get to experience the glory of the 80’s arcade era in a neon fused setting. Shoot your way through retro-futuristic levels filled with enemies, iconic over the top bosses and never ending bullets!” I played this game back when it was in App Lab before it graduated to the full store. It was such a fun shooter back then, and I’d look forward to new levels coming out every few months. Now that it made it out of app lab, has a bunch of levels and had the gameplay polished, it’s absolutely worth a pickup, especially for that price.
   
2. Project Third Eye $9.99 Quest My quick take: A game where you make your own fun. From the store page: “Project Third Eye is an action physics sandbox with a built-in visual scripting panel to apply logic to spawnable items. This allows you to build your own modifications to the game and customize behaviors as you like.” Just like the description says, this is more of a proof of concept and sandbox game more so than a full fledged game with objectives. There are certainly neat ideas here and there, and the dev is really active with updates on Reddit. If you like to experiment and see how concepts develop in a game, you may enjoy this, but there’s no real direction beyond experimenting, so I dropped off fairly quickly.
   
3. Jousting VR Demo $9.99 Quest / Steam Quest Demo My quick take: A bit light on gameplay, but there is some charm here. From the store page: “XIII century, Europe, royal market courtyard. You are a knight who joined the medieval tournament. Your task is 'simple.' Jump on your trusty steed, grab your lance & defeat the enemy. Take into consideration speed, accuracy, strength. Equipment is also important. The better gear the easier the task. Oh, and other knights - they want to win as much as you do.” As advertised, it's a jousting game in VR. I enjoyed the demo, but honestly it was a bit too finicky at times and just not worth a full buy to me. The atmosphere was fun though and there was a progression loop for those who get into it.
   
4. Demeo $39.99 Quest and Steam (flatscreen as well) My quick take: This is a great game that I revisited from start to finish with four players. A must own. From the store page: “Adventurers, it’s time to unite! Gather your friends and fight monsters in Demeo, the turn-based tabletop strategy game of battle and glory. Roll dice, pick up miniatures, and free the world of Gilmerra in round after round of tabletop board game fun. With a huge assortment of monsters, playable classes, and environments to explore, it’s never the same game twice." I finally got a chance to play through the entirety of the game in VR with four friends, through each world, while trying a variety of characters. We even made a video ranking the best players and levels. It really is a solid dungeon crawling adventure. With 2 or more friends, this game really shines and is such a fun ride, despite how punishing the bosses can be. This is the closest you can get to D&D in VR without having a dungeon master. Well worth the asking price.
   
5. Build and Drive Racing Demo Free Quest / Steam My quick take: Early days in development, maybe something to keep an eye on to see how it improves. From the store page: "Get ready for a new experience on Windows desktop and VR, where you get to build your ultimate racing machine, tailored to your driving style and optimized for performance, or race to the finish line with a monster what makes you smile. With stylised graphics and arcade-like physics, every turn, straightway and ramp will put your skills to the test. Feel the thrill of the race like never before in VR, as you immerse yourself counting the seconds on the home stretch." An early demo that has seen some updates. Maybe worth looking at in a few months after a bit more development. I did like what I saw, but honestly, if you’re looking for a finished racing game, try Mini Motor Racing X instead or some of the other heavier PCVR games available.
   
6. Les Mills Body Combat $29.99 Quest My quick take: No subscriptions, great coaches and fun workouts that will make you sweat. From the store page: “Work out at home with a premium fitness app. LES MILLS, the world's leading fitness company, brings the BODYCOMBAT experience to your VR headset with an extensive workout portfolio, top-quality coaching, innovative mechanics, and different intensities.” With no subscriptions or hidden fees, lots of workouts, motivating coaches and the ability to compete with friends on leaderboards, this really is a dynamite workout app. I was working up a good sweat during my workouts, so be sure you have good facial insert and a fan ready. Highly recommended if you want a workout in VR for just the price of entry.
   
7. Interkosmos 2000 $19.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: A difficult puzzle game, but rewarding if you have the patience. From the store page: “Go to space. Save the Future. Try not to Die. Welcome (back) to the world of Interkosmos for an even wilder, weirder and more wondrous adventure. Experience the intense exhilaration of spaceflight. Explore the awe-inspiring interiors of a realistic space capsule. Master the crucial systems that will keep you in orbit (and breathing). And while you’re at it, try your best not to die. Should you complete your mission, you just might save the future – and yourself. Should you fail? Let’s not think about that.” An intense puzzle game where you’re piloting a space ship with some very finicky controls. I found the experience way too difficult and exacting. Along with a bit of bugginess, that didn’t help in me determining if the error was my fault or the game's. If you have the patience, there certainly is some rewarding gameplay here, and an interesting story, but I found it all a bit too much to see to the end.
   
8. The Light Brigade $24.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: In a world of rougelikes, this is one that stands out. From the store page: “As a member of The Light Brigade, humanity’s last line of defense, brave ruins bathed in darkness and free the trapped souls who need the salvation only your gun can provide. Shoot, master spells, and upgrade your capabilities to herald the Sun’s return in this roguelike VR shooter.” There’s quite a lot of rouge shooters on Quest and despite the plethora of choices, this one stands out. Be warned, it starts out slowly, but gets quite fun after you get to know the systems after about an hour in. While I did make it to the last boss, I died and never went back to finished it. The gameplay loop and dynamic levels were solid though. The slight upgrades and different classes during each run were interesting and kept me going for a while. The most frustrating time I had was learning the little tips, tricks and finer gameplay points, but it was worth the push through that initial rough patch.
   
9. Resident Evil 4 $39.99 Quest My quick take: One of the best games in VR. A must own. From the store page: “Explore the world of Resident Evil 4, entirely remastered for VR. Step into the shoes of special agent Leon S. Kennedy on his mission to rescue the U.S. President’s daughter who was kidnapped by a mysterious cult. Come face to face with enemies, and uncover secrets with gameplay that revolutionized the survival horror genre. Battle horrific creatures and face-off against mind-controlled villagers while discovering their connection to the cult behind the abduction.” I forgot so much about this game from when I first played it 18 years ago on the GameCube. The long length, fun characters and how exciting the gun play is, all just came together perfectly. The development team spent a ton of time getting the VR feeling just right, and it’s absolutely one of the best on the Quest and well worth the price of entry. Additionally, once you play through the game the first time it really changes from survival horror to a whole new type of game action game. Simply outstanding.
   
10. Mini Golf Hustler Free Quest My quick take: Early days in development. Some good ideas, but a bit too rough around the edges. From the store page: “Challenge Slick Willie Puttman in this FREE nine hole demo of Mini Golf Hustler. Hazards include armed torpedoes, tentacled arms, ornery tikis and more! Multiple betting games, including skins, match play and the fearsome traveling snake. All played at the same time.” I thought I’d check out another mini golf game to see what other ideas there might be outside of the king - Walkabout Mini Golf. While there were some solid ideas for holes, the betting felt uneven, and everything else felt in their very early stages. To be fair, no other mini golf game feels even close to the accuracy of Walkabout, so I think it’s a tough go for any other games to match. It's probably best to stick with the champ for now, but I applaud the dev for trying something different.
    
11. Pin City Free Quest (open beta on Discord) / Steam My quick take: Early days, but wow, worth a download and one to watch in the future. From the store page: "Pin City is a bowling game unlike any other bowling game you’ve played before. We strove to bring the spirit of mini-golf into the world of bowling. We’ve taken the standard bowling setup (straight lane, 10 pins, 1 ball) and expanded, transformed, and evolved it. We wanted to give people a chance to bowl in ways that would be impossible, illegal, or extremely impractical.” An early alpha game, but boy, what a great start, I’m really looking forward to the team getting the physics feeling right with weight and feel of the bowling balls and seeing how much more gameplay they can add. Really worth the download or heading over to their Discord to get a Quest key for free to try it out. The quirky bowling, physics and gameplay they're experimenting with really got me excited to see how this one comes together in the next several months.
    
12. Mash Me Up Free Quest My quick take: Please devs, add more multiplayer support! From the store page: “Do you want to play party games with your friends or meet someone new? All is just one button press away with Mash Me Up. One button, multiple games. Will it be Air Hockey, Pier Pong, Flingball, or… Get ready for a surprise! Press, Play, Enjoy and Go Again!” If this game got a bit more development love it would be incredible. As it stands now, there are several mini games you can play against one person. Most are just okay, but a handful are real gems, and one particularly is incredible - Geo Guesser. Hands down the best mini game in the pack. With four, or six players and some new content, they could easily charge for just this one game. As it stands now, it’s a great two player game, but you’ll need to bring your own friend as the servers are pretty barren. Worth a download though for sure as you’ll get a night of fun out of it.
    
13. THZZLS - Treasures Lost In Time $4.99 Quest My quick take: A unique puzzler that can be pretty relaxing, but repetitive. From the store page: “Our first THZZLE is called "Der Bazar", the world's first VR toy theatre puzzle game. The Bazar is a VR puzzle game where you have to place furniture and props in the right places in old-fashioned rooms according to an old picture you see. The game is set in 19th century Germany and each room has objects taken from the German lifestyle magazine "Der Bazar", published in Berlin.” This one used to be free, with paid content, but it has since changed as they added more content. You recreate a scene with cutouts of people and furniture in a 3D space. It seemed to have endless puzzles with randomization of scenes. I could see someone going to this for a relaxing 10-15 minutes, but it is a lot of the same each time and didn’t grab me fully. If you’re looking for a puzzle game that’s outside of the usual ones you find in the store, it’s not a bad choice for the price. Keep in mind though its hand tracking only, so for some that may be a non starter, even though it felt just fine.
    
14. Barbaria $19.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: What I imagine Gorn is like with a solid game loop of RTS. From the store page: “Do you have what it takes to be the Mightiest in Barbaria? Welcome to a brutal world where visceral motion-controlled combat blends seamlessly with god-scale base-building and asynchronous multiplayer raids. Use fists, axes, swords, bows, rocks, or anything you can grab to dominate your foes in intense 1st-person combat. Then jump out to your immortal form and watch your minions carry on the battle while you rain down meteors from above. Systemic combat, versatile enemy AI, and player-created defenses make every battle unique.” I recognize there is a lot here to do in this game - if you like the game loop. Unfortunately, it really didn’t do much for me. I was expecting more RTS than Gorn style gameplay and was not pulled in by the fighting or quests offered. I have to say that the humor was spot on, and it certainly had good visuals, the game was just not for me. All that being said, there is a lot of content here and you could be playing this for quite some time if you think this could be your jam.
    
15. Toy Monsters Free Quest Demo / $4.99 Quest My quick take: Plants vs Zombies in AR with hand tracking that does enough unique stuff to be worth it. From the store page: “Toy Monsters VR is a mixed-reality tabletop tower defense inspired by classic Plants vs Zombies. Built from the ground up with hand tracking and passthrough in mind. As you progress through the 20 levels, you'll unlock new toys with unique special powers. You can enhance your toys with magical potions and use crystal power to unleash magic beams from your hands, transform your fingers into flamethrowers, and more.” This game has come a long way since its initial release. It’s a solid hand tracking Plants vs. Zombies game with its own twist on powers and uses passthrough quite nicely. My biggest complaint is that you really need to complete the game all in one go (about an hour or so) as it doesn’t keep track of your upgrades if you quit. Essentially, trying to pass a later level without prior upgrades or powerups is near impossible. Despite that one issue, give at least the demo a try and if you like it, the price is pretty fair for what you get.
    
16. Exit Condition One Free Quest Demo / $4.99 Quest My quick take: A bit rough around the edges, but escape room fans will find fun with it. From the store page: “You awake from cryo in a mysterious museum. A robot refers to you as a curator and the security system is malfunctioning. Can you get things back to normal and escape? There are no jump scares. The game is designed ground-up for roomscale VR on the Quest, but supports all locomotion modes. Most objects can be interacted with, it fully uses physics, and the hands don't ‘ghost out.’” According to the description, this is still a work in progress. That being said, it was a neat escape game that I felt I got my money’s worth from. It certainly was a bit rough around the edges with its gameplay and had some obscure puzzles to work through, but I did finish it and had a good time with it. Try the demo for sure, and perhaps when it’s finally finished, some of those rough edges will be polished up, but as it stands now, it was pretty solid.
    
17. Hyperdash Free Quest / Steam My quick take: A solid online shooter, but you'll have to put in the time to get good to find the fun. From the store page: “Hyper Dash is a free VR multiplayer team based shooter. Payload, Domination, Control Point, (Team) Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, Elimination, Ball and remix them with Mutators! Dash, sprint, and rail grind your way across the arenas to engage the enemy in fast-paced combat and secure the objective for your team. Offline mode/Bots, Dedicated servers, Private servers, Rebind-able controls, Left hand support, Voice chat.” For a free to play shooter, this one had great controls, nice graphics, a good gameplay loop, plenty of comfort options and a solid player base. All that being said, every player I faced off against were top tier, so I spent my time just dying round after round. This is a good game with a solid player base and there's fun here - if you’re willing to learn the ropes. It's bad for newbies like me just looking to have a good time and get a few kills.
    
18. Please, Don’t Touch Anything $9.99 Quest / $4.99 Steam My quick take: A game for escape room devotees only. From the store page: "Please, Don’t Touch Anything is a cryptic, brain-racking button-pushing puzzle game. Covering for a colleague taking a bathroom break, you find yourself in front of a mysterious console with a green screen monitor showing a pixelated live image of an unknown city. Also present is an ominous red button with the simple instruction to not touch anything! Push the red button once or press it many times. Your choices and actions will lead to outrageous and frightening consequences and over 30 unique puzzle endings.” This is a weird one. A really obscure puzzle game that rewards experimentation, but is absolutely punishing with difficulty. If you’re really good at escape games and don’t get frustrated easily, you may enjoy the tedium. If not, you’ll end up like me, watching a tutorial to find out how to get different endings. But if you find yourself doing that, why not just watch a playthrough.
    
19. Eleven Table Tennis $29.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: Still one of the best, but there’s so much untapped potential. From the store page: “The ultimate Table Tennis simulator. Play opponents in online multiplayer or practice against the advanced AI. With physics designed to be as real as ever achieved in a Table Tennis simulator, you will forget you are in VR." I finally got back to this game after the new UI was implemented. It looks much more user friendly, but much to my disappointment, there were no new arenas, music, or official doubles options. There is so much potential for expanding this game, and I feel like the devs are just content to have it remain in the state it currently is. Which, to be fair, is a perfect implementation of table tennis in VR. It’s still one of the best VR games out there and absolutely a must own. I just really wish they would add an officially supported doubles mode and expand out the game a bit more because the unofficial doubles mode is a real pain to get set up and only barely worth the struggle. If you'd like to see how to set that doubles up currently, here is a video I was a part of.
    
20. Breachers $29.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: Come one, come all, this is 5 v 5 at its finest. From the store page: “In Breachers, you plan your assault or orchestrate your defense as a team through intense close-quarters combat. Whether you play as an enforcer or a revolter, master your nifty gadgetry, customize your powerful weaponry and beat your opponents in stunning environments. Intuitive to grasp. Endlessly playable.” Wow, wow, wow. This officially launched and is such a polished game. With multiple maps, intuitive movement and full lobbies, this game is simply spectacular. Despite the difficulty curve in being good at the game, it’s still a fun time even if you’re not the best, which is something special that few games manage to pull off. Where this game especially shines is with friends. If you can muster up a team of five to take on other random players, you’ll be playing this game for months. Give this a go, and if you're not any good, that's okay, because you'll still be better than the bots and a welcome addition to someone's team.
    
21. Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Outcast (Sidequest mod) Free Demo on Quest / $9.99 (Full Game on Steam) My quick take: Come for the lightsaber play, stay if you can tolerate the puzzles. From the store page: “JK XR is a standalone VR port of the popular Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast game by Lucasarts and Raven Software. Brought to VR by Team Beef & Friends. There are lots of mods and access to the free demo level available through the JK XR Companion App, which is automatically also installed alongside JK XR on your headset.” I never played this game when it first came out on flatscreen in 2002, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The first part of the game you’re playing essentially as a Han Solo type - a smart talkin’ gun slinger. The next part, you’re a cool Jedi chopping off limbs. Absolutely great execution as always by Team Beef, and you can’t beat the price. There is even a free demo to try out to see if you like it. All that being said, the game’s old puzzles, navigation and gameplay felt every bit of 20 years old. After dying multiple times because of missing an exact jump, getting lost and backtracking because I didn't see an obscure elevator and wasting time trying to navigate odd puzzles, I just found it to be too much to overcome to continue to the end. This is no slight on Team Beef and the great work they did with this port, the game just hasn’t aged the best.
    
22. CoasterMania $9.99 Quest My quick take: Early days, but still some fun to be had. There could be something special here after a few updates. From the store page: “CoasterMania is a physics-based VR rollercoaster game where you create the ride of your life! Use wacky contraptions and elements to fly through the sky, then experience your creation by jumping in the front seat. Sandbox mode: Build your dream rollercoaster without any rules but the rules of physics. When you're done, share your coaster or experience the engineering marvels of others. Design your own rides and upload them online.” You know, this game is just silly fun. It's early days for sure, and the tracks don't twist and come together as easily together as I’d hoped, which makes for a difficult time creating exactly what you want. It is satisfying though to have a roller coaster leap from one track to another over a gap. At this point the game is more of a sandbox than a full game with objectives (which is coming). The coasters other people have created are fun, so if you’re not into creating, there is that option to play with other people's designs, plus you can ride them in first person. I look forward to more updates and think it's worth looking at for sure, but if you’re looking for something a bit more fleshed out currently you can try Stunt Track Builder.
    
23. David Slade Mysteries: Case Files $9.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: You’re a forensic cop, here are your tools. Good luck dummy. From the store page: “Take to the dark and violent streets of downtown Riverside, where you investigate gruesome and violent homicides using a range of Forensic tools and your wits! Inspired by the classic Police Quest adventure series, reborn & reimagined for VR. Includes two epic episodes!” Slade is a murder mystery game that is ruthless in it’s difficulty. Honestly, there are several play throughs of this game on YouTube and none have beaten the first case because it was too hard, they all gave up. This game offers no hints, is super abstract and insanely difficult. Why did I keep playing? Well, the game’s tools were implemented quite well, the story was compelling, and I just felt I had to see this through to the end for my own sanity. Despite being as hard as nails, I somehow managed to finish the first case, then moved on to the second. No real spoilers, but the second case does a complete 180 and essentially becomes a horror game where you’re only weapon is your wits. A real departure from the first case. Again, I found myself frustrated, confused and turned around, but again, I had to power through it because something kept pulling me in. If you’re a masochist for puzzle games, I’d recommend this game.
    
24. Home Detective Free w/IAP - Quest My quick take: Fun use of AR, but pretty basic. From the store page: “Use your own living room to solve the crime! Using passthrough, the crime scene is overlaid onto your play area, leaving you free to explore and find clues. Use the patent-pending Residual Heat Scanner to detect the criminals' recent movements, and then dust for fingerprints or try to find evidence left behind. With your wits, and your trusty sidekick Steve Dobbins' snarky comments, you're sure to get to the bottom of these confusing crimes.” I appreciate the interesting use of passthrough and AR in this game. The first case is free to try, so if you’re into AR and passthrough, it’s worth a try. It's $3.99 for another case if you’re into it, but right now, it’s a pretty basic, but solid idea. My biggest complaint is that all my tools were on a shelf that was inaccessible because they were in my wall. I guess AR is still not quite there yet.
    
25. Vertigo Remastered $24.99 Steam My quick take: A fun and wacky ride from start to finish. From the store page: “It's a classic premise - a massive subterranean scientific facility full of mysteries, with aliens bursting in from alternate universes to wreak havoc. The twist? You're one of those aliens. But you're not here to wreak havoc (collateral damage disregarded), you're just trying to get home. A difficult endeavor, as it turns out this facility is more than prepared to deal with extraterrestrial threats.” Because I heard such great things about Vertigo 2, I thought I’d try out this game before I played the sequel. I was really blown away by how fun the game was and pleasantly surprised that it holds up so well. Considering its a 2016 remake, and VR was still figuring out a lot of things like movement, this still felt fresh. With lots of unique ideas, upgrades and areas to play in, I heartily recommend this one and am looking forward to playing the sequel.
    
26. Playin’ Pickleball $19.99 Quest My quick take: Solid physics, but really only for pickleball fans, or a group of four friends. From the store page: “Playin’ Pickleball is an authentic reproduction of Pickleball in Virtual Reality! Physics, sounds and mechanics have been carefully mapped from actual Pickleball game play. Even the scoring and rules are based on the USA Pickleball Association’s Official Rulebook.” Pickleball is sweeping the nation and if I recall correctly, even ForeVR is getting in on the game with an upcoming title. I’m much more of a tennis than pickleball guy, but I have to say, this game has pretty solid physics. Like most games, this is exponentially better with one or better yet, three other people you know. The AI players can be pretty uninteresting hitting it back and forth without much variance. Also the environments are a bit basic. I have to applaud the movement, physics and customizable items though as they all felt very well implemented. If you want something a bit less daunting than tennis, this might be what you're looking for.
    
27. Pong $6.99 Quest My quick take: A neat take on Pong, but you’ll have more fun with Cybrix. From the store page: “Classic paddle game reimagined for VR. Destroy all the bricks. Use your paddles to swing at the balls and the balls have built-in assistance to return back toward you. Take advantage of the pistol and magneto power-ups to cause major damage. Or just swing hard at the balls to create large blast radius. Oh and watch out for those mines going for your head. Lean left/right or crouch to avoid.” I appreciated the ideas the developers had in this modern take on Pong, but it was ultimately quite short and not nearly as fun as Cybrix. That being said for the price, I got my money’s worth and would love to see it get a bit more polish and levels in an update.
    
28. Extreme Escape $4.99 Quest / Steam (Early Access) My quick take: One of those special games where you really feel like you're in the environment. From the store page: “Have you ever wondered how it would feel to travel in a hot air balloon and fly above clouds? Have you ever wanted to face your fear of heights and enclosed spaces? Perhaps you wanted to become a pilot and test your critical thinking skills. Looking for a breathtaking experience? Try Extreme Escape.” The game says “early access,” but honestly I believe this has been abandoned. For the price, you get an extremely short, but fun and unique escape room experience. You’re not going to find this game too hard, but I was brought into its world and completely immersed - I had a true sense of dread and panic. The even shorter “demo” inside the game puts you on a sinking submarine and was extremely memorable. Seldom have I felt so immersed in a game. I’d recommend it for this price, just because of how it made me feel, but it’s a real shame about the very short length and that it’s abandoned.
    
29. The Last Worker $19.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: Gaming with a heavy message, but mediocre gameplay. From the store page: “The Last Worker is an immersive narrative adventure centered around a lone worker’s last stand in an increasingly automated world, The Last Worker is a unique blend of work simulation and stealth strategic gameplay. The game is set in a lonely, oppressive but strangely beautiful environment, with characters designed by comics legend Mick McMahon. Kurt works for the world’s largest retailer and is forced to choose between capitalism or activism. Having dedicated his life to work, Kurt’s loyalty is put to the test when a group of activists ask him to dismantle Jüngle from the inside.” I really wanted to like this game. It had an interesting concept, but navigating, fail states and some very annoying bugs frustrated me to the point where I just said it wasn’t worth my time. That and the story wasn’t speaking to me. It’s well rated, so I’m probably on the opposite side of this one from most people. It's unique in many ways, so check out the teaser and see if it might be for you.
    
30. Shadow Point $19.99 Quest My quick take: Fisherman’s Tale vibes with an excellent story and puzzles that makes you feel smart. From the store page: “Built for VR, Shadow Point is a story-driven puzzle game set between a mountaintop observatory and an ever-changing fantasy world. Explore a vibrant kingdom, cast shadows and solve mind-bending puzzles as you uncover the mystery of missing schoolgirl, Lorna McCabe who vanished from Shadow Point Observatory twelve years ago. As your adventure unfolds, you will manipulate gravity, play with your own reflection, walk on walls, peer through a magical lens to reveal an alternate reality and much more.” I had this game on my wishlist forever and finally pulled the trigger, and boy am I glad I did. I really enjoyed the story, gameplay and ended up marathoning it in one session (which I don't recommend doing). It is a few hours long, and there are extra puzzles to go back to if you’d like. It had some serious Fisherman’s Tale vibes, so if you like those type of puzzle games, this is for you. The puzzles make you stop and think, and more importantly, progress nicely. I was never stuck, but certainly had to really contemplate how to solve some of them. It is slightly finicky with having to line up the shadows exactly to progress, but that is a minor complaint. Give this one a go for sure.
    

I hope you find a few games on this list that you might not have heard of, or that you might find worth revisiting. Let me know here or on the Ruff Talk Discord channel if you have a game you enjoy that I should try, I'm always open to recommendations. Until then, I hope your next VR experience is a memorable one.
Also, the week this is posted, I'm hosting a contest where one winner gets a $29.99 or less, Quest game of their choice. You can enter on the discord channel above, but will need to have five posts on the discord channel within a week to enter, so if that interests you, feel free to join. The Ruff Talk guys usually have giveaways every week and it's some solid VR chat if you're looking for like-minded individuals in a non-toxic space.
TLDR: Top five games to check out - Ark and Ade, Pin City, Breachers, Shadow Point, Vertigo Remastered

I'm keeping track of all the VR games I’ve played this year to catalogue them in hopes that they may give fellow VR gamers some fresh games to try out, or reasons to revisit older games that have had big updates. I'm currently up to 52 different VR games played this year. The first 22 that I played from January to March can be found here. The latest 30 games are mostly on the Quest, but many are available on PCVR.
Some of the games listed below, I can see playing all year long, others are not my cup of tea, but they may interest you enough to try them out. In either case, here are my quick thoughts on the 30 games I’ve played during April and May of 2023.
TLDR: My top 5 games to check out are at the bottom and so is some info for a game giveaway.

1. ARK and ADE $9.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: A fun shooter with Pistol Whip vibes that is absolutely worth the price of admission. From the store page: “ARK and ADE is an action-jammed FPS shooter in which you get to experience the glory of the 80’s arcade era in a neon fused setting. Shoot your way through retro-futuristic levels filled with enemies, iconic over the top bosses and never ending bullets!” I played this game back when it was in App Lab before it graduated to the full store. It was such a fun shooter back then, and I’d look forward to new levels coming out every few months. Now that it made it out of app lab, has a bunch of levels and had the gameplay polished, it’s absolutely worth a pickup, especially for that price.
   
2. Project Third Eye $9.99 Quest My quick take:A game where you make your own fun. From the store page: “Project Third Eye is an action physics sandbox with a built-in visual scripting panel to apply logic to spawnable items. This allows you to build your own modifications to the game and customize behaviors as you like.” Just like the description says, this is more of a proof of concept and sandbox game more so than a full fledged game with objectives. There are certainly neat ideas here and there, and the dev is really active with updates on Reddit. If you like to experiment and see how concepts develop in a game, you may enjoy this, but there’s no real direction beyond experimenting, so I dropped off fairly quickly.
   
3. Jousting VR Demo $9.99 Quest / Steam Quest Demo My quick take:A bit light on gameplay, but there is some charm here. From the store page:“XIII century, Europe, royal market courtyard. You are a knight who joined the medieval tournament. Your task is 'simple.' Jump on your trusty steed, grab your lance & defeat the enemy. Take into consideration speed, accuracy, strength. Equipment is also important. The better gear the easier the task. Oh, and other knights - they want to win as much as you do.” As advertised, it's a jousting game in VR. I enjoyed the demo, but honestly it was a bit too finicky at times and just not worth a full buy to me. The atmosphere was fun though and there was a progression loop for those who get into it.
   
4. Demeo $39.99 Quest and Steam (flatscreen as well) My quick take:This is a great game that I revisited from start to finish with four players. A must own. From the store page: “Adventurers, it’s time to unite! Gather your friends and fight monsters in Demeo, the turn-based tabletop strategy game of battle and glory. Roll dice, pick up miniatures, and free the world of Gilmerra in round after round of tabletop board game fun. With a huge assortment of monsters, playable classes, and environments to explore, it’s never the same game twice." I finally got a chance to play through the entirety of the game in VR with four friends, through each world, while trying a variety of characters. We even made a video ranking the best players and levels. It really is a solid dungeon crawling adventure. With 2 or more friends, this game really shines and is such a fun ride, despite how punishing the bosses can be. This is the closest you can get to D&D in VR without having a dungeon master. Well worth the asking price.
   
5. Build and Drive Racing Demo Free Quest / Steam My quick take: Early days in development, maybe something to keep an eye on to see how it improves. From the store page: "Get ready for a new experience on Windows desktop and VR, where you get to build your ultimate racing machine, tailored to your driving style and optimized for performance, or race to the finish line with a monster what makes you smile. With stylised graphics and arcade-like physics, every turn, straightway and ramp will put your skills to the test. Feel the thrill of the race like never before in VR, as you immerse yourself counting the seconds on the home stretch." An early demo that has seen some updates. Maybe worth looking at in a few months after a bit more development. I did like what I saw, but honestly, if you’re looking for a finished racing game, try Mini Motor Racing X instead or some of the other heavier PCVR games available.
   
6. Les Mills Body Combat $29.99 Quest My quick take: No subscriptions, great coaches and fun workouts that will make you sweat. From the store page: “Work out at home with a premium fitness app. LES MILLS, the world's leading fitness company, brings the BODYCOMBAT experience to your VR headset with an extensive workout portfolio, top-quality coaching, innovative mechanics, and different intensities.” With no subscriptions or hidden fees, lots of workouts, motivating coaches and the ability to compete with friends on leaderboards, this really is a dynamite workout app. I was working up a good sweat during my workouts, so be sure you have good facial insert and a fan ready. Highly recommended if you want a workout in VR for just the price of entry.
   
7. Interkosmos 2000 $19.99 Quest / Steam My quick take:A difficult puzzle game, but rewarding if you have the patience. From the store page: “Go to space. Save the Future. Try not to Die. Welcome (back) to the world of Interkosmos for an even wilder, weirder and more wondrous adventure. Experience the intense exhilaration of spaceflight. Explore the awe-inspiring interiors of a realistic space capsule. Master the crucial systems that will keep you in orbit (and breathing). And while you’re at it, try your best not to die. Should you complete your mission, you just might save the future – and yourself. Should you fail? Let’s not think about that.” An intense puzzle game where you’re piloting a space ship with some very finicky controls. I found the experience way too difficult and exacting. Along with a bit of bugginess, that didn’t help in me determining if the error was my fault or the game's. If you have the patience, there certainly is some rewarding gameplay here, and an interesting story, but I found it all a bit too much to see to the end.
   
8. The Light Brigade $24.99 Quest / Steam My quick take: In a world of rougelikes, this is one that stands out. From the store page: “As a member of The Light Brigade, humanity’s last line of defense, brave ruins bathed in darkness and free the trapped souls who need the salvation only your gun can provide. Shoot, master spells, and upgrade your capabilities to herald the Sun’s return in this roguelike VR shooter.” There’s quite a lot of rouge shooters on Quest and despite the plethora of choices, this one stands out. Be warned, it starts out slowly, but gets quite fun after you get to know the systems after about an hour in. While I did make it to the last boss, I died and never went back to finished it. The gameplay loop and dynamic levels were solid though. The slight upgrades and different classes during each run were interesting and kept me going for a while. The most frustrating time I had was learning the little tips, tricks and finer gameplay points, but it was worth the push through that initial rough patch.
   
9. Resident Evil 4 $39.99 Quest My quick take: One of the best games in VR. A must own. From the store page: “Explore the world of Resident Evil 4, entirely remastered for VR. Step into the shoes of special agent Leon S. Kennedy on his mission to rescue the U.S. President’s daughter who was kidnapped by a mysterious cult. Come face to face with enemies, and uncover secrets with gameplay that revolutionized the survival horror genre. Battle horrific creatures and face-off against mind-controlled villagers while discovering their connection to the cult behind the abduction.” I forgot so much about this game from when I first played it 18 years ago on the GameCube. The long length, fun characters and how exciting the gun play is, all just came together perfectly. The development team spent a ton of time getting the VR feeling just right, and it’s absolutely one of the best on the Quest and well worth the price of entry. Additionally, once you play through the game the first time it really changes from survival horror to a whole new type of game action game. Simply outstanding.
   
10. Mini Golf Hustler Free Quest My quick take: Early days in development. Some good ideas, but a bit too rough around the edges. From the store page: “Challenge Slick Willie Puttman in this FREE nine hole demo of Mini Golf Hustler. Hazards include armed torpedoes, tentacled arms, ornery tikis and more! Multiple betting games, including skins, match play and the fearsome traveling snake. All played at the same time.” I thought I’d check out another mini golf game to see what other ideas there might be outside of the king - Walkabout Mini Golf. While there were some solid ideas for holes, the betting felt uneven, and everything else felt in their very early stages. To be fair, no other mini golf game feels even close to the accuracy of Walkabout, so I think it’s a tough go for any other games to match. It's probably best to stick with the champ for now, but I applaud the dev for trying something different.
    
11. Pin City Free Quest (open beta on Discord) / Steam My quick take: Early days, but wow, worth a download and one to watch in the future. From the store page: "Pin City is a bowling game unlike any other bowling game you’ve played before. We strove to bring the spirit of mini-golf into the world of bowling. We’ve taken the standard bowling setup (straight lane, 10 pins, 1 ball) and expanded, transformed, and evolved it. We wanted to give people a chance to bowl in ways that would be impossible, illegal, or extremely impractical.” An early alpha game, but boy, what a great start, I’m really looking forward to the team getting the physics feeling right with weight and feel of the bowling balls and seeing how much more gameplay they can add. Really worth the download or heading over to their Discord to get a Quest key for free to try it out. The quirky bowling, physics and gameplay they're experimenting with really got me excited to see how this one comes together in the next several months.
    
12. Mash Me Up Free Quest My quick take: Please devs, add more multiplayer support! From the store page: “Do you want to play party games with your friends or meet someone new? All is just one button press away with Mash Me Up. One button, multiple games. Will it be Air Hockey, Pier Pong, Flingball, or… Get ready for a surprise! Press, Play, Enjoy and Go Again!” If this game got a bit more development love it would be incredible. As it stands now, there are several mini games you can play against one person. Most are just okay, but a handful are real gems, and one particularly is incredible - Geo Guesser. Hands down the best mini game in the pack. With four, or six players and some new content, they could easily charge for just this one game. As it stands now, it’s a great two player game, but you’ll need to bring your own friend as the servers are pretty barren. Worth a download though for sure as you’ll get a night of fun out of it.
    
13. THZZLS - Treasures Lost In Time $4.99 Quest My quick take: A unique puzzler that can be pretty relaxing, but repetitive. From the store page: “Our first THZZLE is called "Der Bazar", the world's first VR toy theatre puzzle game. The Bazar is a VR puzzle game where you have to place furniture and props in the right places in old-fashioned rooms according to an old picture you see. The game is set in 19th century Germany and each room has objects taken from the German lifestyle magazine "Der Bazar", published in Berlin.” This one used to be free, with paid content, but it has since changed as they added more content. You recreate a scene with cutouts of people and furniture in a 3D space. It seemed to have endless puzzles with randomization of scenes. I could see someone going to this for a relaxing 10-15 minutes, but it is a lot of the same each time and didn’t grab me fully. If you’re looking for a puzzle game that’s outside of the usual ones you find in the store, it’s not a bad choice for the price. Keep in mind though its hand tracking only, so for some that may be a non starter, even though it felt just fine.
    
14. Barbaria $19.99 Quest / Steam My quick take:What I imagine Gorn is like with a solid game loop of RTS. From the store page: “Do you have what it takes to be the Mightiest in Barbaria? Welcome to a brutal world where visceral motion-controlled combat blends seamlessly with god-scale base-building and asynchronous multiplayer raids. Use fists, axes, swords, bows, rocks, or anything you can grab to dominate your foes in intense 1st-person combat. Then jump out to your immortal form and watch your minions carry on the battle while you rain down meteors from above. Systemic combat, versatile enemy AI, and player-created defenses make every battle unique.” I recognize there is a lot here to do in this game - if you like the game loop. Unfortunately, it really didn’t do much for me. I was expecting more RTS than Gorn style gameplay and was not pulled in by the fighting or quests offered. I have to say that the humor was spot on, and it certainly had good visuals, the game was just not for me. All that being said, there is a lot of content here and you could be playing this for quite some time if you think this could be your jam.
    
15. Toy Monsters Free Quest Demo / $4.99 Quest My quick take:Plants vs Zombies in AR with hand tracking that does enough unique stuff to be worth it. From the store page: “Toy Monsters VR is a mixed-reality tabletop tower defense inspired by classic Plants vs Zombies. Built from the ground up with hand tracking and passthrough in mind. As you progress through the 20 levels, you'll unlock new toys with unique special powers. You can enhance your toys with magical potions and use crystal power to unleash magic beams from your hands, transform your fingers into flamethrowers, and more.” This game has come a long way since its initial release. It’s a solid hand tracking Plants vs. Zombies game with its own twist on powers and uses passthrough quite nicely. My biggest complaint is that you really need to complete the game all in one go (about an hour or so) as it doesn’t keep track of your upgrades if you quit. Essentially, trying to pass a later level without prior upgrades or powerups is near impossible. Despite that one issue, give at least the demo a try and if you like it, the price is pretty fair for what you get.
    
16. Exit Condition One Free Quest Demo / $4.99 Quest My quick take: A bit rough around the edges, but escape room fans will find fun with it. From the store page: “You awake from cryo in a mysterious museum. A robot refers to you as a curator and the security system is malfunctioning. Can you get things back to normal and escape? There are no jump scares. The game is designed ground-up for roomscale VR on the Quest, but supports all locomotion modes. Most objects can be interacted with, it fully uses physics, and the hands don't ‘ghost out.’” According to the description, this is still a work in progress. That being said, it was a neat escape game that I felt I got my money’s worth from. It certainly was a bit rough around the edges with its gameplay and had some obscure puzzles to work through, but I did finish it and had a good time with it. Try the demo for sure, and perhaps when it’s finally finished, some of those rough edges will be polished up, but as it stands now, it was pretty solid.
    
17. Hyperdash Free Quest/Steam My quick take: A solid online shooter, but you'll have to put in the time to get good to find the fun. From the store page: “Hyper Dash is a free VR multiplayer team based shooter. Payload, Domination, Control Point, (Team) Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, Elimination, Ball and remix them with Mutators! Dash, sprint, and rail grind your way across the arenas to engage the enemy in fast-paced combat and secure the objective for your team. Offline mode/Bots, Dedicated servers, Private servers, Rebind-able controls, Left hand support, Voice chat.” For a free to play shooter, this one had great controls, nice graphics, a good gameplay loop, plenty of comfort options and a solid player base. All that being said, every player I faced off against were top tier, so I spent my time just dying round after round. This is a good game with a solid player base and there's fun here - if you’re willing to learn the ropes. It's bad for newbies like me just looking to have a good time and get a few kills.
    
18. Please, Don’t Touch Anything $9.99 Quest / $4.99 Steam My quick take: A game for escape room devotees only. From the store page: "Please, Don’t Touch Anything is a cryptic, brain-racking button-pushing puzzle game. Covering for a colleague taking a bathroom break, you find yourself in front of a mysterious console with a green screen monitor showing a pixelated live image of an unknown city. Also present is an ominous red button with the simple instruction to not touch anything! Push the red button once or press it many times. Your choices and actions will lead to outrageous and frightening consequences and over 30 unique puzzle endings.” This is a weird one. A really obscure puzzle game that rewards experimentation, but is absolutely punishing with difficulty. If you’re really good at escape games and don’t get frustrated easily, you may enjoy the tedium. If not, you’ll end up like me, watching a tutorial to find out how to get different endings. But if you find yourself doing that, why not just watch a playthrough.
    
19. Eleven Table Tennis $29.99 Quest/Steam My quick take: Still one of the best, but there’s so much untapped potential. From the store page: “The ultimate Table Tennis simulator. Play opponents in online multiplayer or practice against the advanced AI. With physics designed to be as real as ever achieved in a Table Tennis simulator, you will forget you are in VR." I finally got back to this game after the new UI was implemented. It looks much more user friendly, but much to my disappointment, there were no new arenas, music, or official doubles options. There is so much potential for expanding this game, and I feel like the devs are just content to have it remain in the state it currently is. Which, to be fair, is a perfect implementation of table tennis in VR. It’s still one of the best VR games out there and absolutely a must own. I just really wish they would add an officially supported doubles mode and expand out the game a bit more because the unofficial doubles mode is a real pain to get set up and only barely worth the struggle. If you'd like to see how to set that doubles up currently, here is a video I was a part of.
    
20. Breachers $29.99 Quest/Steam My quick take: Come one, come all, this is 5 v 5 at its finest. From the store page: “In Breachers, you plan your assault or orchestrate your defense as a team through intense close-quarters combat. Whether you play as an enforcer or a revolter, master your nifty gadgetry, customize your powerful weaponry and beat your opponents in stunning environments. Intuitive to grasp. Endlessly playable.” Wow, wow, wow. This officially launched and is such a polished game. With multiple maps, intuitive movement and full lobbies, this game is simply spectacular. Despite the difficulty curve in being good at the game, it’s still a fun time even if you’re not the best, which is something special that few games manage to pull off. Where this game especially shines is with friends. If you can muster up a team of five to take on other random players, you’ll be playing this game for months. Give this a go, and if you're not any good, that's okay, because you'll still be better than the bots and a welcome addition to someone's team.
    
21. Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Outcast (Sidequest mod) Free Demo on Quest / $9.99 (Full Game on Steam) My quick take: Come for the lightsaber play, stay if you can tolerate the puzzles. From the store page: “JK XR is a standalone VR port of the popular Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast game by Lucasarts and Raven Software. Brought to VR by Team Beef & Friends. There are lots of mods and access to the free demo level available through the JK XR Companion App, which is automatically also installed alongside JK XR on your headset.” I never played this game when it first came out on flatscreen in 2002, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The first part of the game you’re playing essentially as a Han Solo type - a smart talkin’ gun slinger. The next part, you’re a cool Jedi chopping off limbs. Absolutely great execution as always by Team Beef, and you can’t beat the price. There is even a free demo to try out to see if you like it. All that being said, the game’s old puzzles, navigation and gameplay felt every bit of 20 years old. After dying multiple times because of missing an exact jump, getting lost and backtracking because I didn't see an obscure elevator and wasting time trying to navigate odd puzzles, I just found it to be too much to overcome to continue to the end. This is no slight on Team Beef and the great work they did with this port, the game just hasn’t aged the best.
    
22. CoasterMania $9.99 Quest My quick take:Early days, but still some fun to be had. There could be something special here after a few updates. From the store page: “CoasterMania is a physics-based VR rollercoaster game where you create the ride of your life! Use wacky contraptions and elements to fly through the sky, then experience your creation by jumping in the front seat. Sandbox mode: Build your dream rollercoaster without any rules but the rules of physics. When you're done, share your coaster or experience the engineering marvels of others. Design your own rides and upload them online.” You know, this game is just silly fun. It's early days for sure, and the tracks don't twist and come together as easily together as I’d hoped, which makes for a difficult time creating exactly what you want. It is satisfying though to have a roller coaster leap from one track to another over a gap. At this point the game is more of a sandbox than a full game with objectives (which is coming). The coasters other people have created are fun, so if you’re not into creating, there is that option to play with other people's designs, plus you can ride them in first person. I look forward to more updates and think it's worth looking at for sure, but if you’re looking for something a bit more fleshed out currently you can try Stunt Track Builder.
    
23. David Slade Mysteries: Case Files $9.99 Quest/Steam My quick take: You’re a forensic cop, here are your tools. Good luck dummy. From the store page: “Take to the dark and violent streets of downtown Riverside, where you investigate gruesome and violent homicides using a range of Forensic tools and your wits! Inspired by the classic Police Quest adventure series, reborn & reimagined for VR. Includes two epic episodes!” Slade is a murder mystery game that is ruthless in it’s difficulty. Honestly, there are several play throughs of this game on YouTube and none have beaten the first case because it was too hard, they all gave up. This game offers no hints, is super abstract and insanely difficult. Why did I keep playing? Well, the game’s tools were implemented quite well, the story was compelling, and I just felt I had to see this through to the end for my own sanity. Despite being as hard as nails, I somehow managed to finish the first case, then moved on to the second. No real spoilers, but the second case does a complete 180 and essentially becomes a horror game where you’re only weapon is your wits. A real departure from the first case. Again, I found myself frustrated, confused and turned around, but again, I had to power through it because something kept pulling me in. If you’re a masochist for puzzle games, I’d recommend this game.
    
24. Home Detective Free w/IAP - Quest My quick take:Fun use of AR, but pretty basic. From the store page: “Use your own living room to solve the crime! Using passthrough, the crime scene is overlaid onto your play area, leaving you free to explore and find clues. Use the patent-pending Residual Heat Scanner to detect the criminals' recent movements, and then dust for fingerprints or try to find evidence left behind. With your wits, and your trusty sidekick Steve Dobbins' snarky comments, you're sure to get to the bottom of these confusing crimes.” I appreciate the interesting use of passthrough and AR in this game. The first case is free to try, so if you’re into AR and passthrough, it’s worth a try. It's $3.99 for another case if you’re into it, but right now, it’s a pretty basic, but solid idea. My biggest complaint is that all my tools were on a shelf that was inaccessible because they were in my wall. I guess AR is still not quite there yet.
    
25. Vertigo Remastered $24.99 Steam My quick take: A fun and wacky ride from start to finish. From the store page: “It's a classic premise - a massive subterranean scientific facility full of mysteries, with aliens bursting in from alternate universes to wreak havoc. The twist? You're one of those aliens. But you're not here to wreak havoc (collateral damage disregarded), you're just trying to get home. A difficult endeavor, as it turns out this facility is more than prepared to deal with extraterrestrial threats.” Because I heard such great things about Vertigo 2, I thought I’d try out this game before I played the sequel. I was really blown away by how fun the game was and pleasantly surprised that it holds up so well. Considering its a 2016 remake, and VR was still figuring out a lot of things like movement, this still felt fresh. With lots of unique ideas, upgrades and areas to play in, I heartily recommend this one and am looking forward to playing the sequel.
    
26. Playin’ Pickleball $19.99 Quest My quick take:Solid physics, but really only for pickleball fans, or a group of four friends. From the store page: “Playin’ Pickleball is an authentic reproduction of Pickleball in Virtual Reality! Physics, sounds and mechanics have been carefully mapped from actual Pickleball game play. Even the scoring and rules are based on the USA Pickleball Association’s Official Rulebook.” Pickleball is sweeping the nation and if I recall correctly, even ForeVR is getting in on the game with an upcoming title. I’m much more of a tennis than pickleball guy, but I have to say, this game has pretty solid physics. Like most games, this is exponentially better with one or better yet, three other people you know. The AI players can be pretty uninteresting hitting it back and forth without much variance. Also the environments are a bit basic. I have to applaud the movement, physics and customizable items though as they all felt very well implemented. If you want something a bit less daunting than tennis, this might be what you're looking for.
    
27. Pong $6.99 Quest My quick take:A neat take on Pong, but you’ll have more fun with Cybrix. From the store page: “Classic paddle game reimagined for VR. Destroy all the bricks. Use your paddles to swing at the balls and the balls have built-in assistance to return back toward you. Take advantage of the pistol and magneto power-ups to cause major damage. Or just swing hard at the balls to create large blast radius. Oh and watch out for those mines going for your head. Lean left/right or crouch to avoid.” I appreciated the ideas the developers had in this modern take on Pong, but it was ultimately quite short and not nearly as fun as Cybrix. That being said for the price, I got my money’s worth and would love to see it get a bit more polish and levels in an update.
    
28. Extreme Escape $4.99 Quest / Steam (Early Access) My quick take:One of those special games where you really feel like you're in the environment. From the store page: “Have you ever wondered how it would feel to travel in a hot air balloon and fly above clouds? Have you ever wanted to face your fear of heights and enclosed spaces? Perhaps you wanted to become a pilot and test your critical thinking skills. Looking for a breathtaking experience? Try Extreme Escape.” The game says “early access,” but honestly I believe this has been abandoned. For the price, you get an extremely short, but fun and unique escape room experience. You’re not going to find this game too hard, but I was brought into its world and completely immersed - I had a true sense of dread and panic. The even shorter “demo” inside the game puts you on a sinking submarine and was extremely memorable. Seldom have I felt so immersed in a game. I’d recommend it for this price, just because of how it made me feel, but it’s a real shame about the very short length and that it’s abandoned.
    
29. The Last Worker $19.99 Quest / SteamMy quick take:Gaming with a heavy message, but mediocre gameplay. From the store page:“The Last Worker is an immersive narrative adventure centered around a lone worker’s last stand in an increasingly automated world, The Last Worker is a unique blend of work simulation and stealth strategic gameplay. The game is set in a lonely, oppressive but strangely beautiful environment, with characters designed by comics legend Mick McMahon. Kurt works for the world’s largest retailer and is forced to choose between capitalism or activism. Having dedicated his life to work, Kurt’s loyalty is put to the test when a group of activists ask him to dismantle Jüngle from the inside.” I really wanted to like this game. It had an interesting concept, but navigating, fail states and some very annoying bugs frustrated me to the point where I just said it wasn’t worth my time. That and the story wasn’t speaking to me. It’s well rated, so I’m probably on the opposite side of this one from most people. It's unique in many ways, so check out the teaser and see if it might be for you.
    
30. Shadow Point $19.99 Quest My quick take:Fisherman’s Tale vibes with an excellent story and puzzles that makes you feel smart. From the store page: “Built for VR, Shadow Point is a story-driven puzzle game set between a mountaintop observatory and an ever-changing fantasy world. Explore a vibrant kingdom, cast shadows and solve mind-bending puzzles as you uncover the mystery of missing schoolgirl, Lorna McCabe who vanished from Shadow Point Observatory twelve years ago. As your adventure unfolds, you will manipulate gravity, play with your own reflection, walk on walls, peer through a magical lens to reveal an alternate reality and much more.” I had this game on my wishlist forever and finally pulled the trigger, and boy am I glad I did. I really enjoyed the story, gameplay and ended up marathoning it in one session (which I don't recommend doing). It is a few hours long, and there are extra puzzles to go back to if you’d like. It had some serious Fisherman’s Tale vibes, so if you like those type of puzzle games, this is for you. The puzzles make you stop and think, and more importantly, progress nicely. I was never stuck, but certainly had to really contemplate how to solve some of them. It is slightly finicky with having to line up the shadows exactly to progress, but that is a minor complaint. Give this one a go for sure.
    

I hope you find a few games on this list that you might not have heard of, or that you might find worth revisiting. Let me know here or on the Ruff Talk Discord channel if you have a game you enjoy that I should try, I'm always open to recommendations. Until then, I hope your next VR experience is a memorable one.
Also, the week this is posted, I'm hosting a contest where one winner gets a $29.99 or less, Quest game of their choice. You can enter on the discord channel above, but will need to have five posts on the discord channel within a week to enter, so if that interests you, feel free to join. The Ruff Talk guys usually have giveaways every week and it's some solid VR chat if you're looking for like-minded individuals in a non-toxic space.
TLDR: Top five games to check out - Ark and Ade, Pin City, Breachers, Shadow Point, Vertigo Remastered

Looking to find a rafting company that would let me bring my own raft (15’Maravia) on a 2 wk+ trip. I’d like to bring the whole fam, but I’d basically be a gear boat. I’ve been paddling over two decades and this would be a bucket list item.
Any ideas welcome. Mostly paddled WV rivers currently. I’d be tagging onto a trip we’d book commercially for everyone, just want to bring my own boat as well.
Thanks

My toy poodle Teddy Pompin was found in Japan at 6 weeks old and we thought he wasn't going to survive his first week but he did and got treated for infections etc microchipped, vaccinated etc
He traveled with me to korea, Germany and the US. I went through a very abusive sad relationship for nearly a decade and he was my only friend. When my husband was at his worst the only way I knew how to calm him down was have him cuddle with Teddy because even though he was bad to me, he loved Teddy. My husband is not my husband anymore. That's been a lot to deal with. Now Teddy is 10 and were living with my parents in the UK, and has been struggling to eat, struggling to poop, dripping bloody jelly from his bottom. The vet has him on a prescription diet, immunosuppressant pills and pain killers for pancreatitis. Hes not improving. The mortality rate seems quite high and I'm not coping well with the idea of losing him possibly sooner than expected. I always imagined he'd live to 18. He always came to work with me and I don't.have any children so I've always thought of him as my son.
I feel so sad everytime I have to hand feed him the prescription low fat biscuits that he really doesn't want to eat. He still loves to paddle in his paddling pool but he can't go for walks without stopping to drip watery poo drips or straining for nothing to come out every few feet.
I'm also going through a lot of other personal problems and recovering from surgery, and the thought of being alone without Teddy is keeping me awake at night. My hair is starting to fall out. I don't think I'm coping very well.
I'm not sure what to do. He still has another weeks worth of medicine but I'm not sure if the vet should be looking for other treatment methods. I'm not asking for medical advice. Just advice on how to not fall apart.
Sorry.

Welcome to bettafish!
Click this link to view our CARESHEET
Quick synopsis of caresheet:

• Minimum tank size is 5 gallons (about 20 liters) for a regular sized betta, and 10 gallons (about 40 liters) for a king/giant betta
• Bettas need an adjustable heater and a thermometer to ensure water temperature stays between 78-82°F or about 26-28°C
• Bettas need a cycled tank- this requires a filter
• Bettas need silk or live plants and hidey holes with no sharp edges.
• Bettas have a special organ, the labyrinth organ, allowing them to breathe air. They require constant access to air at the top of the tank.
• Bettas will jump- it is best to have a tank with a lid

Click this link to view our WIKI
Quick synopsis of the wiki:

• Contains info on basic betta care, diseases, potential tank mates, tail types/coloring, differences between males/females, ordering bettas, moving with bettas, setting up sororities and MORE!
• This most likely has the answers to your questions. Feel free to ask questions if you are confused or aren't sure about something.

Click here to read about being prepared for outages
WEEKLY HELP POST
This is the place to ask anything and everything about bettas. Be sure to include your water parameters(ammonia/nitrite/nitrate,) tank size, how long the specific issue has been occurring, and some pictures if there is something which requires a diagnosis (e.g. fin rot/melt, velvet, dropsy.)
How do I upload pictures?
Go to imgur.com and select "New Post". Add all the clear pictures you have so we can better determine what is going on with your fish. It is recommended you set the album to private if you don't want weird comments. Click upload. From there, click the share button- if you are on mobile, hit "copy to clipboard" and paste the link into your comment on here. If on desktop, copy the link and paste it here.
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If your question was not answered yesterday, please feel free to post again!
Ask away!

Here are the final results of the latest poll after 2 full years of weekly voting, followed by all-time statistics for all 3 years of polls including the Atari Era:

The Best Games of the NES/Master System Era:

1. Super Mario Bros. 3
2. Contra
3. Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
4. Ninja Gaiden
5. Bubble Bobble
6. Mega Man 3
7. Phantasy Star
8. Final Fantasy
9. Battletoads
10. Batman: The Video Game
11. Blaster Master
12. Shinobi
13. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
14. Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation / Dragon Warrior III
15. Tecmo Super Bowl
16. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
17. Rygar
18. Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap
19. Dr. Mario
20. Mother / EarthBound Beginnings
21. Journey to Silius
22. Metroid
23. Super Mario Bros. 2 / Super Mario USA
24. Space Harrier
25. The Legend of Zelda
26. River City Ransom / Street Gangs
27. Jackal / Top Gunner
28. Rampage
29. Super Spike V'Ball / U.S. Championship V'Ball
30. Little Samson
31. The Guardian Legend
32. Gargoyle's Quest II
33. Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
34. Sid Meier's Pirates!
35. DuckTales
36. California Games
37. Alex Kidd in Miracle World
38. Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars
39. Jaws
40. Gun-Nac
41. OutRun
42. Mega Man 2
43. Kid Icarus
44. R.C. Pro-Am
45. Faxanadu
46. Double Dragon II: The Revenge
47. Kirby's Adventure
48. Snake Rattle 'n' Roll
49. The Battle of Olympus
50. R-Type
51. Maniac Mansion
52. Kid Niki: Radical Ninja
53. Golden Axe Warrior
54. Psycho Fox
55. Crystalis
56. Gimmick! / Mr. Gimmick
57. Battletoads & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team
58. Dragon Quest / Dragon Warrior
59. Bionic Commando
60. Gain Ground
61. Conquest of the Crystal Palace
62. Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom
63. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project
64. Excitebike
65. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)
66. Captain Skyhawk
67. Alex Kidd in Shinobi World
68. Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II
69. Zanac
70. Black Tiger / Black Dragon
71. NES Open Tournament Golf
72. Golvellius: Valley of Doom
73. Bucky O'Hare (NES)
74. International Karate + / IK+ / Chop N' Drop
75. Ghosts 'n Goblins
76. Rolling Thunder
77. Renegade / Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun
78. Rambo: First Blood Part II (SMS) / Secret Command
79. Baseball Stars
80. P.O.W.: Prisoners of War
81. Blades of Steel
82. Ice Hockey
83. Fantasy Zone
84. Micro Machines
85. Super Mario Bros.
86. Castlevania
87. 1943: The Battle of Midway
88. Vice: Project Doom
89. The NewZealand Story / Kiwi Kraze
90. Mega Man 4
91. StarTropics
92. Paperboy
93. Gradius / Nemesis
94. Formula One: Built to Win
95. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen / Dragon Warrior IV
96. Super Sprint
97. Mega Man
98. Ys: The Vanished Omens / Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished
99. Batman: Return of the Joker
100. Super C / Super Contra

"Super C / Super Contra" won last week's poll with nearly twice as many votes as all 5 other games in the poll combined, and becomes the 64th NES game to join the list! Last round 100 people voted in the poll.

Earliest and Latest NES/Master System Era Games:

6 games were the earliest in the poll from 1985.
3 games were the latest in the poll from 1993.

Platforms of the NES/Master System Era by Number of Games:

64 - NES 23 - Arcade 9 - Master System 4 - Computer
The percentage of arcade games fell from 66% in the Atari Era to 23% in the NES Era.
The percentage of console games rose from 20% in the Atari Era to 73% in the NES Era.

Genres of the NES/Master System Era by Number of Games:

38 - Platformer 13 - Action Adventure 9 - Shooter 8 - Sports 7 - Beat 'em Up 7 - RPG 7 - Run and Gun 6 - Racing 4 - Action 1 - Puzzle 1 - Adventure 1 - Fighter
The percentage of shooter games fell from 40% in the Atari Era to 9% in the NES Era.
The percentage of platformer games rose from 20% in the Atari Era to 38% in the NES Era.
A new genre to the polls, the Action Adventure, was suddenly the 2nd-most popular genre.
3 other new genres also did well: Sports, Beat 'em Up, and Run and Gun games.

Developers of the NES/Master System Era by Number of Games:

13 - Nintendo 11 - Sega 11 - Capcom 10 - Konami 5 - Rare 5 - Sunsoft 4 - Tecmo 4 - Compile 4 - Technos 3 - SNK 3 - Chunsoft 2 - Westone 2 - Irem 2 - Taito 2 - Atari 1 - Square 1 - Ape 1 - Bally Midway 1 - Takeru 1 - MicroProse 1 - Epyx 1 - Hudson Soft 1 - HAL Laboratory 1 - Infinity 1 - Lucasfilm Games 1 - Vic Tokai 1 - Quest 1 - Atlus 1 - System 3 1 - Namco 1 - Codemasters 1 - Aicom 1 - Winkysoft 1 - Nihon Falcom
Atari fell from developing 20% of top games in the Atari Era to only 2% in the NES Era.
Activision similarly fell from 10% of top games in the Atari Era to none in the NES Era.
Namco as well fell from 10% of top games to only 1% in the NES Era.
Capcom, a new developer not in the Atari Era poll, ended up tied for 2nd-most games in the NES Era.
Nintendo and Sega rose to dominate this Era, developing 13% and 11% of games, up from 6% and 2% last era.

Platforms on the All-Time List (Atari & NES Era Combined):

83 - Console 56 - Arcade 11 - Computer

Genres on the All-Time List (Atari & NES Era Combined)

48 - Platformer 29 - Shooter 13 - Action Adventure 11 - Action 9 - RPG 8 - Sports 8 - Racing 7 - Beat 'em Up 7 - Run and Gun 4 - Maze 3 - Adventure 2 - Paddle 1 - Interactive Film 1 - Puzzle 1 - Fighter

Developers on the All-Time List (Atari Era & NES Era Combined):

16 - Nintendo 12 - Atari 12 - Konami 12 - Sega 11 - Capcom 6 - Namco 5 - Activision 5 - Rare 5 - Sunsoft 4 - Bally Midway 4 - Taito 4 - Tecmo 4 - Compile 4 - Technos 3 - SNK 3 - Chunsoft 2 - Williams 2 - Lucasfilm Games 2 - Westone 2 - Irem
(only developers with multiple games listed)

The 50 Best Video Games of the Atari Era

Want to see the best games before this era? Check out this list which was compiled by Reddit users' nominations and votes over an entire year:
https://www.reddit.com/retrogaming/comments/o4drau/best_video_games_of_the_atari_era_poll_final/

What Was Eligible To Be Nominated:

• Any Arcade coin-op game from 1985-1988.
• Any Computer game (any PC system) from 1985-1988.
• Any Home Console game from the 3rd Generation (regardless of year published unless it is a port): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_generation_of_video_game_consoles
• NO SNES games, NO Sega Genesis/Mega Drive games. Those systems aren't retro enough for this poll.
• NO Sonic. NO Streets of Rage, NO A Link to the Past, NO Super Mario World. Those games aren't retro enough for this poll.

Exceptions:

In general, the original year published takes precedence. No games that played betteare more iconic/are more remembered in an earlier or later era.
"Sonic the Hedgehog" was released for Sega Master System, but as a port, it was made for the Sega Genesis, so it is not eligible for this poll.
"Tetris" made its biggest impact with 35 million copies sold for the Game Boy, in the next era, so it is not eligible for this poll.
Arcade ports like the original "Mario Bros.", which hit arcades in 1983 are not eligible for this poll, even though they were ported to home consoles from the next generation.
1984's coin-op “Punch-Out!!”, was more iconic/more remembered as 1987's “Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!” on the NES, which is now eligible for this poll.
Instances like this can be debated. I think it's best to allow all games from a console to be designated to one era, and for games to appear in one era poll only.

The Idea:

Comparing, say, Pong and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, is not useful. It's like arguing which is better: the Ford Model T or the Space Shuttle? But comparing games of their era is interesting and fun! Usually, best game polls are limited to a single system. This poll is unique because it includes all platforms from the era together. How will the best arcade, computer and Master System games compete with the best that Nintendo had to offer? It will be interesting!

Why Only Arcade and Computer Games from 1985-1988?

The 3rd Generation of home consoles launched in the West with the NES in 1985 and changed everything. The Sega Genesis/Mega Drive launched in 1989, began the 4th generation of home consoles which will begin the era for the next series of polls after this concludes.

The Criteria:

I'll leave it up to the individual to decide. Innovation, quality, influence, iconic status, how much fun it was then, how it holds up today, are all valid. Whatever games you love, whatever games you want to see named as the greatest of the era.

What Happens Next:

Next week we will move on from the NES/Master System Era to the SNES/Genesis/TG-16 Era, for a new set of polls.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to vote in the polls and nominate games in the comments section.
This will be a series of polls I hope to hold every week for a long time! Have fun everyone!

[←Chapter 57] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 59→]
It had taken no small amount of doing to make sure Aya’s various trips went unnoticed. First there were the paladins, who, for all their apparent vigilance, somehow passed over her subterfuge. As for Sorore and Frare, Aya wasn’t quite sure - she’d debated on whether or not to bring them in on the offers of tutelage.
Ultimately, she chose to keep it to herself for now, not in jealousy or so she assured herself. The painstaking effort she’d taken to ensure that she did remain hidden took the better part of an hour. As for the reward, she wasn’t sure if it was worth it, at least not yet.
Most of the previous evenings had been long discussions with a cat who, while polite, responded to inquiries with indifference. ‘Ask Efrain’ was a common response whenever questions of history or of technique came up. The Madame spoke in broad strokes, and all in the context of nature, which did make a certain sense to Aya, but lacked substance.
She’d spent those evenings in rapt attention, however, only occasionally glancing at Efrain’s body, trying to see any sign of movement. Still, she often found herself wishing that it was him leading the lesson, confident that he could put her lingering queries to rest. Now, she was finally here, learning magic from the person she’d imagined about.
And he was asking her to boil water.
Perhaps not the auspicious start she imagined, but it would have to do.
Efrain raised one of the herbs up to the light for her inspection.
“Dracne,” he said, “very pungent, especially when you start heating it.”
She recognized it, though it was usually added to sour soups and flavouring meats.
“This will make tea?”
“Not particularly,” he said, “in truth, it will at best make boiled leaf juice.”
“Isn’t that what all tea is?”
The mask regarded her with a definite air of admonishment.
“Well, now I can see the need for instruction.”
He placed the herb bundle back down on the ground, and picked up one of the dishes.
“Let’s review from last night,” he said, “what exactly is magic?”
It took a moment for Aya to realise that this wasn’t a rhetorical question.
“Well, it’s… it’s a… it allows you to do things?” she said, vaguely remembering the definition Efrain gave in the waggon.
“Well, that’s a way to put it,” he said dryly, “in a broad sense, you’re not incorrect. We did touch on the issue last night, indirectly. How does one define magic? Is it a process, a technique, a method? Or is it something more defined, something that has a physical existence, or presence. The answer probably lies between.”
“So you don’t know?” Aya said, wondering if he would acknowledge the gap in his explanation.
“Of course I don’t. Anyone who says otherwise is an idiot or a fraud,” Efrain snorted, “what I do know is that magic existed long before us, and will do so long after us. There’s been many assumptions about its nature that have proven incorrect in that time, some disastrously so.”
Efrain sloshed the thin layer of water around the bowl.
“Perhaps even my assumptions about it are incorrect. If you continue your magical education, you’ll find there are many ways to view it in many lands. Some might be correct, others not so, most likely have at least parts that are true or useful.”
He set the bowl on the tips of his fingers, letting the fluid still.
“In any case, my personal thoughts on the matter are as we talked about yesterday. Memory, Intent, Emotion. Goal, process, energy,” he said, “those are the cornerstones of my method, and is what I’ll be teaching you.”
Plumes of white steam began to peel off the surface of the water.
“I remember heat, in the many forms I’ve encountered over the years. For this process, I think most akin are hot springs in the deep mountains, which stay steaming even in the depths of winter. That is what I imagine when I want to heat this water. That is Memory, it is the goal state you are to achieve. What do I want? Warm water for tea. And here we are.”
Aya nodded, picking up her own bowl of water, staring intently at the surface.
“Now, second. Intent. How do you achieve such a goal? What is the process? There’s rarely one way to do something, indeed, there can be as many as your imagination can conjure. Most people believe that this part is a mechanical process, but it’s actually quite creative. For me, I imagine hot blood, burning at first in my heart, then flowing down my arm, and that heat passing through my hand and the bowl into the water, raising the temperature.”
Aya could see it, could feel it, but still the water remained cool and still.
“And finally, the thing that drives the whole procedure. Emotion. Whatever you need to connect to the magic inside and around you, and drive it to your own end. Magic can be cantankerous, willful even, especially if it’s someone else’s. You need conviction, powerful emotions to drive strong spells, but for this, the joy of teaching for the first time in a long while.”
“So you can use any emotion?” said Aya, looking at the mirror surface of the bowl.
“Negative or positive. Sorrow as much as joy, rage as much as calm, all of them could be used as a potential catalyst. The more powerful, the more potential. However, remember that more powerful emotions are harder to control - when was the last time you acted rationally when you were frightened or angry?”
Aya tried not to think of the chilling fear of the fog monsters and the nights of terror they brought with them.
“So then, could faith be used?” she said, “you said any emotion.”
Efrain took a moment to consider, then nodded.
“I don’t see any reason it couldn’t. Faith, in the context of magic, should function like any other emotion. I suspect you already guessed as much, considering the lessons from your minders.”
Aya nodded, the paladins having confirmed as much during their brief sessions over the last few days.
“If you ask me, they're setting themselves up for failure,” Efrain said.
“Why?” said Aya, thinking of how strong the pair was.
“Because faith, while it certainly can be potent, is also fragile,” Efrain said, and perhaps seeing Aya’s confused expression hastily corrected, “that is to say, what happens if they cannot martial it? What if they see something that makes them doubt? What if some council from on high releases an edict that conflicts with their own understanding? All that work for nothing.”
Efrain set his own bowl down and folded his legs together.
“No, no. Faith cannot be the foundation. One can lose access to it easily, and it’s hard to get back. Anger, fear, joy, sorrow, all these are far more accessible. So, with that being as it may, try it.”
“Try it? Try- right now?”
“Yes,” the voice came without chuckle or sarcasm, “you know enough to try it. It might not be easy, but few things worth doing ever are.”
“A-Alright.”
Aya tried to get a grasp for something, anything. She imagined the flow of red-hot blood, she thought of steaming crockery on their stove. Still nothing happened. To stem the onset of dread, boredom, and frustration, she asked another question.
“But why would Niche and Lillian lie like that? Why would they use magic and then call it something else?”
“If you were building an empire, with enemies all around, would you deny yourself such a powerful tool?” Efrain said, “of course not. Empires are not made on scriptures and preaching alone, Angorrah knows this. However, its possible the paladins themselves might be confused - the theology on magic within the church is far from settled.”
“What does that mean?” she said, narrowing her eyes and willing the water to boil.
“If it was a simple matter of saying no magic period, then the paladins might’ve sorted themselves out by now,” Efrain said, “the scriptures on the subject are all over the place. Some espouse blanket prohibitions, others prescribe certain leniencies, others references older traditions that all went into the waters of the Black Tide Augury, or were lost in other ways.”
Aya’s head was spinning with all the words, although she thought that she had the general idea.
“I see your history is also something we have to work on,” Efrain said, “to make a long story short, the Black Tide Augury was many events, culminating in a flood that destroyed most original church texts.”
“Didn’t they keep copies?” she said, feeling something faintly tingling in her fingers.
“Yes. They were later destroyed by a priest named Noenea.”
“Huh.”
“He was, understandably, cast out of the church. Later, his students, or those who took inspiration from his preachings took control. Hence, most of the church’s modern thought. They, unfortunately for us, were opposed to magic and its use.”
“And that’s why they call it miracles now?” Aya said, digging her toes into the soft dirt.
“I suspect so,” Efrain said, “they were never going to give it up entirely. Condemning it on one side, while using it to mould your own bodies under a different name.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Do you think that your minders’ strength is natural? Few men can wield such large swords with two hands, let alone one, and your paladins aren’t exactly the biggest.”
Aya squirmed at the veiled implications of the mage, though she could not deny what she’d seen on the rooftop of the church.
“But we’re getting off topic,” he said, “perhaps for another time. You appear to be struggling.”
“Yes,” she admitted, “what exactly am I supposed to do with this?”
The mage raised a soft gloved hand, and it came to rest on hers.
“Now, close your eyes please,” he said, “I’ll guide you.”
That darkness closed in around her as she felt a distant tugging sensation. Was he attempting to tease out magic in some hidden place? The darkness around her grew deeper as she waited for something, anything to happen. There was a purpose to it, an anticipation, like she was being led somewhere by signs left by a person long gone. Within the darkness was where she found something bright and blue. From it came forth a flow, swelling in response to her attention.
“There you go,” came Efrain’s voice, distant somehow, “now remember your lesson. Memory, intent, emotion. The water bowl.”
She did so once more, feeling the flow of the magic race through her, her heart thundering in time with its passage.
“Alright, you can stop now,” he said, and her eyes snapped open.
The water was boiling violently, large bubbles exploding in gouts of steam, nearly spilling onto her hands. With a yelp of surprise, she dropped the bowl, only saved from it splattering her legs by Efrain catching it.
“Well, you did it,” he said, “more effectively than I might’ve expected to.”
“I- I didn’t mean to do this,” she said, looking sheepishly at the steaming liquid as Efrain set it down to the side.
“Oh, I’m quite aware,” Efrain said, “Sorore went through several buckets before she got it right.”
She felt a little burgeoning pride pulling her chest up and out at the appraisal.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” he said, “she had a harder task, and in the middle of that fog as well.”
“Oh, sorry,” she said, chastened.
“Regardless, you’ve done well,” he said, “usually it takes a good few tries before a student gets a feel for it. Sometimes as much as a day or two. You children are certainly gifted, if nothing else.”
“So, what’s next?” Aya said.
“Nothing, we’re done.”
The disappointment at the blank dismissal was only deepened by the lack of anything fiery to show for her efforts.
“I hope you didn’t think we were going to skip to anything dramatic. One doesn’t jump to algebra before learning addition,” said the mage, “but your work doesn’t end here.”
“What’s ‘algebra’?” she asked.
“Oh,” said Efrain, “moving on. The point is that you need to lock fundamentals in. Boil the water to steaming, every morning. Probably would be best to do it subtly, understood?”
She nodded, excited at last that she would have something to do, independent of both the paladins and the children.
“Remember. The three building blocks. Memory, Intent, Emotion. The more you have those drilled into your memory, the easier more complicated things will be. Now, off with you. Not wise to keep you too long, I think.”
She nodded, thanked him, and set off along the path she trod not twenty minutes before. She felt above all conflicted - the sense of anticlimax was profound. But there was definitely that sense of pride, and burgeoning curiosity, that gave a little pep in her step as she slinked back towards the waggon.
Fortunately, it seemed her absence had gone unnoticed for the time being. She briefly spared a thought to how it seemed rather odd that the paladins, being avowed protectors of them, seemed to so easily be deceived. The thoughts clung to her as she clambered back into the waggon and slipped underneath the blankets.
Before she could drift off to sleep, however, she found a wide eyed Frare, with a grin that was visible even in the deep darkness of the wagon.
“So, what, did you do it?” he said, as quietly as he could, which was probably not quiet enough.
“Do what?” she said, turning away from him, “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You’re not a very good liar, are you?” he said, huffing with what sounded like disappointment, “come on, tell me, what was it like?”
“About what? And no, I am not a good liar, maybe because I never had a reason. And still don’t,” she said.
“Whatever,” said the boy, shrugging his shoulders, “what are you going to worry about? Sorore’s fast asleep.”
“What makes you think I’d trust you?” she said.
“What?” he said, sounding genuinely hurt, “of course you can trust me.”
“I met you what… a week ago? I hardly know you,” she said.
“All right, fair. But you can trust me,” he said, “I just want to know what it was like. Please?”
She sighed as she settled into the blankets.
“Fine. It was disappointing,” she said, “I didn’t do much at all.”
“Oh,” he said, “well that’s boring.”
“I agree. Now I’m tired, and would like to sleep.”
The boy had already turned over, and had gone back to his steady rhythm of breathing.
Bonehead, Aya thought, though, try as she might, she couldn’t suppress a smile.
Aya slipped into the veil of sleep with ease, descending down through an inky blackness that consumed thought and time together. What she found in the darkness was a grand expanse of sand, dunes rising and falling into the distance as sand fell from her hair. As she watched, water began coursing through the troughs, pulling the sand with it until all the world was a river, flowing just past her feet. The sky was an endless expanse of blue, dotted by the occasional cloud, with no horizon seam between the endless sheet of glass below her.
Deep below her, though it should’ve been shallow enough to wade through, something coiled in the depths, moving at terrible speed. She could see many billowing fins and limbs, splayed in the dark, as if sails to catch some undersea wind. And eyes, so many eyes, stabbing through the depths with a blue radiance.
From them came a bubbling roar, echoing up from the abyss like rolling waves upon a shore.
She was awoken by a gentle shake of the shoulder, Sorore was pulling her up by the time she returned fully to consciousness, trying to recall all the details of the bizarre encounter
“Come on!” she said, “we’ve reached the hinterlands. They rode early through the morning. The commander said he wanted to reach the city by nightfall if they could help it.”
Aya struggled at the overwhelming sense of grogginess as she pushed her way to the front of the waggon. Outside, the morning was bright, the sun fully out and overhead to shine down upon a great expanse of flatlands. They were on the last of a set of steep hills, leading down onto a rolling series of narrow fields edged with forests and glimmering rivers.
Far, far to what must’ve been the east, stood a tall ridge of mountains made purple by the haze. They jutted south into a distant blue-green sea, craggy slopes trailing down into the lagoon below. It was still a half-day’s journey away, but even so, Aya could see the city - a forest of multi-coloured buildings, some laid into the mountain side, most following the gentle slope spilling down into what must’ve been the Emyaka, that mythical lagoon.
This was ‘home’, Aya thought, this was Karkos.
[←Chapter 57] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 59→]

[←Chapter 56] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 58→]
On the whole, things were actually looking up for Efrain at least as far as he could reckon. It was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one that Naia had reached out to him. Adding on top of it that at least one of the children had fallen right into his lap, he might come away from this trip with more than near-death experiences.
The trio was sitting on the wooden floor of the waggon, the morning light rapidly brightening. It wouldn’t be long before the paladin’s awoke, by Efrain’s reckoning, so they’d best be quick.
“Well,” Efrain began, “I’ll let you ask three questions. That’s all we have time for today.”
Having a student, a proper student, was a prospect that he enjoyed more than he cared to admit. Aya took her time, drumming her fingers on the floor as she tried to come up with whatever her mind demanded of him.
“What is magic? What’s the difference between magic and miracles? And… what am I?”
Three, concise. Innie stirred at the first two, and Efrai guessed that Aya had already asked them before.
“‘What is magic’ is a matter of some debate. In the most practical sense, it’s a way of manipulating the world. Some have worshipped it as divine or spiritual. Some haven’t,” Efrain answered, “though, if you want my personal opinion, magic is a process of discovery, just as mathematics or philosophy is. It requires skill, or talent, most of all, dedication and practice.”
She nodded, this definition perhaps striking a cord with her.
“The difference between magic and miracles?” he said, “Well, I’m not entirely sure what miracles you’re referring to, but I can certainly attest that there are those that pass off magic as miracles.”
Aya stiffed slightly as it, and Efrain guessed from where the questions had sprung.
“Ah. I would’ve imagined the paladins said something like that. Self-aggrandizing hogwash - they use magic, I use magic. It’s fundamentally the same thing.”
He left out the part about how radically inefficient their methods likely were - that was for a later time.
“But the church says-”
“That magic is a sin. Something used by people in dark places?” snorted Efrain, “Angorrah used to be a centre of magical education, though the church would never admit that. I myself used to dwell there, many years ago.”
“The madame said that you would know about the night of the Burning Tree,” said Aya, looking at the cat, “that you lived through it.”
Efrain, at the usage of the word ‘madame’, also looked at the cat, significantly less impressed than his young charge. He indeed had lived through it, although he couldn’t recall it.
“It was over three centuries ago,” he said, “complete chaos. Partisans from the lands conquered during the Helgacite expansion. Angry youths from the Academies who felt betrayed by the church, mixing with other factions. Worst of all was the portion of the military that wanted to overthrow the ruling authority. The Night of the Burning Tree was a poorly thought out riot.”
Once more, the hypocrisy of the unknown haunted his assertion.
“I left the city not long after,” he said, “the writing was on the wall at that point. The church was preparing for decades to destroy the Academy, and that night was the perfect excuse for them to do so. Sometimes I wonder…”
Aya leaned forwards, clearly interested in this history he recounted.
“But that’s not relevant to your questions, nice try,” he said, leaving his suspicions on who exactly had set fire to the sacred tree to himself, “as for your third question - what are you.”
Out of habit, a long finger reached up to scratch at his temple.
“You are an enigma, a mystery. I don’t think I’ve encountered anything quite like you, and, believe me, between books and my own travels, that is not a low bar. It’s rare to stumble on someone so unique.”
Efrain was conscious of how bright it was beginning to get.
“Perhaps we’ll find some answers as we continue to explore magic together,” he put together quickly, “but alas, that’ll have to wait for another time. Best that you get back to your fellows. Quick now.”
Satisfied, at least for the moment, Aya thanked him, and with a little bow to Innie, quickly got out of the wagon and departed.
“A bow?” he said to his long-time companion.
“I was never going to get it from you,” she said, snorted, “besides, how long will it be before you get her calling you ‘teacher’?”
Efrain decided that was fair and not to press the point.
“I’m going to find Tykhon, I’d rather ride him than be in this rickety thing on a forest path,” he said, “also, have you see Clarallel?”
“She seems to be having a ball,” Innie said, “There’s no shortage of injuries for her to treat.”
“Oh, goodie,” he said, “at least she’s been keeping busy I’m sure.”
Efrain made his way around the camp, not taking long before finding another class taking place. Claralelle was inscribing lines in the dirt with a stick, depicting this muscle and that, while a collection of mostly shirtless men and women stood around her. As she explained its shape and what connected into what, she indicated so on her model - a vaguely embarrassed looking young soldier in the middle.
Efrain leaned against a tree, studying the reactions of the soldiers as Claralle launched into a fairly in depth explanation of the forces involved in a sword swing. To their credit, most of them seemed fascinated, and one was even scribbling hasty notes on a piece of parchment. As the lesson wrapped up, and the soldiers departed speaking in hushed tones, Efrain walked up behind Clara.
“My. Seems you’re gaining a following,” he said.
“Something like that?” she said in her customary joyous tone, “they’re interested. I’m interested. I might as well share!”
“Indeed,” he said, “keep in mind not to complain about the church too heavily, lest you land in hot water with some.”
She gave him a blank look, and it occurred to Efrain that she might not even know the slightest about the church, other than it existed.
“Anyways,” he continued, “I wanted to know what your plans were. Now that we’re out of both frying pan and fire.”
“Oh, I have no idea,” she said.
“...really?”
“I suppose I should go find another flesh lord, and complete my training. Or set up my own practice and… practice. Oh, and I like to read, and there are a lot of books. And there are a lot of people to treat as well!”
“Uh-huh,” Efrain murmured, “well, I don’t know about any others, but I can certainly introduce you to Carnes. Whether or not they’d be willing to take you on as a student is another story.”
“Also, I should find the skull of my master, if it hasn’t been crushed to dust by now,” she said, “we used to joke that I would strip it of the flesh and boil it. Then I’d put a little hat on it, or maybe use it to drink wine from. I don’t entirely remember.”
“They may have been joking.”
“No, I don’t think so. Either way, he’s dead, so he doesn’t have the luxury of choice.”
“Well, then,” Efrain said, clearing his throat to change the subject, “is it on to Angorrah, then? That’s where Carnes is, if you’re interested in meeting them.”
She nodded in a manner that was akin to a shrug, hoisting one of her many tool belts onto her pleated skirts.
“I’ve never been in a big city, I would like to see one,” she said.
“Don’t let me stop you,” he said, deciding not to mention the kind of reception she might receive there.
“Well, then, what about you? Are you going to the city? Seems like as bad an idea for me as it is for you.”
“Granted,” he said, “I’m not sure yet. We’ll be in Karkos in a few days, and we’ll see what happens. By the way, you don’t happen to have a pair of cups that you could spare, do you?”
“You could just take one or two from the ground. They leave them around all the time. I don’t think they’ll notice if they go missing.”
“And you know that because… you’ve done it before,” he said.
She nodded vigorously, before turning and walking away.
Efrain began to walk to the outskirts of the camp, looking for an unaccompanied piece of dishware or two. Clara was soon proven right, as he found that there were quite a few, enough for him to select a set of shallow wooden constructs between a plate and bowl. Perfect for what he was planning, or so he hoped. With his objective secured, he passed between the trees, and once he was a significant distance from the camp, he whistled.
The physical impossibility of the sound amused him, especially since he managed to do it perfectly every time.
Tykhon came through the trees, loping along on his six limbs, swivelling his head this way and that. Efrain wondered if that was for vision, or if he was scenting the air. The mount did not seem worse for ware, despite the danger they’d passed through. Efrain supposed there was no lack of food and water in the woods, and he’d been more than happy to wander along in them.
“I’m glad to see you,” he said, rubbing the creature’s long snout.
The creature nuzzled at him, leaving Efrain to wonder if Carnes had built some fondness for him in the creature’s very blood. He turned back and looked through the trees, seeing the soldiers beginning to pack their tents and tools.
“I don’t entirely know what I’m doing,” he said to his mount, “feels like I might’ve really stepped in it this time, Tykhon. I might end up headless, or with a new friend.”
Tykhon offered no response, other than to lay its massive head on his shoulder.
“Trying to get some blood on me?” he said, noticing the red flecks near the slit of its mouth, “rascal.”
He led Tykhon through the trees and back towards the wagon circle where Innie waited. Oddly enough, the mounts being hitched didn’t bolt or grow agitated at the approach of the much larger creature. Efrain wasn’t sure how Carnes had managed that either, but he supposed it was just another example of the skill of the flesh lord.
Soon, he and Innie were heading to the top of the line, but they stopped before they reached where the men were forming up. Damafelce was washing some clothes in a creek, leaving a trail of red-purple water.
“Don’t you have a page to do that for you?” he said from the back of his mount.
“I do,” she said, “but I prefer to do it myself. It’s what I used to do while my mother composed.”
“A bit of home then?” he said.
She nodded as she withdrew the shirt from the stream, its pale surface still stuffed with a red-brown stain.
“That being said,” she said, “I think this one is beyond my aid. I see you found your mount, lord Efrain. He’d been trailing the caravan for a while, some of the soldiers were getting nervous.”
“Well, I’m glad they didn’t shoot him. I would’ve been quite upset, though I doubt they would’ve harmed him much.”
“What is he exactly?” she said, wringing out the shirt before throwing it over her well muscled shoulder, “I’ve never seen nor heard of a beast like him.”
“A chimera of some description,” Efrain said, “actually I don’t even know if it's a he. It was a gift from a friend.”
“A… what?” Damafelce said, trying to sound out ‘chimera’.
“A mixture of animals, modified and merged. Flesh lords dabble in such things occasionally.”
“And is that… blood around his muzzle?” she said, looking concerned.
“Yes. He’s… well, I think he eats both plants and flesh, given the chance. I’ve seen him eating berries, and also… an eagle. I’m not sure how he managed to catch it,” Efrain said.
Damafelce looked more impressed than frightened, but Efrain noticed how her eyes drifted down to the claws on the forelimbs of the creature.
“He’s not particularly aggressive,” Efrain said, “but I think he can get skittish.”
“I’ll keep it in mind. Is there anything you wanted to speak to me about?”
“No, no,” Efrain said, “I just saw you in the clearing and wanted to say hello.”
She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, clearly doubting him.
“Although, there’s one question I would like to ask if you wouldn’t mind.”
“There it is,” said the captain, “well, then, ask away.”
“This seems like a less than desirable post for you, so far away from home. Why did you come?”
Her eyebrows furrowed at the question, almost as if she was insulted that he’d even asked her.
“I volunteered, we all did. Even the commander. He needed good men, so he had us.”
“Well then, that wraps some lingering questions I had,” Efrain said, nodding, “I’ll see you on the road, captain.”
Now that was interesting, Efrain thought, so was Naia put forward, or did he volunteer on his own?
Efrain rode on to where the men were massing, and waited patiently for the line to form up properly. Tykhon shifted his weight to the side and began to rub himself on the bark of a nearby tree, snuffling and grunting as he did so. Efrain absent-mindedly rubbed behind his ears as he thought about the day’s lesson.
It didn’t take long for the men to get moving along the old road, though it was more a foot path than anything else. Efrain didn’t have much time or desire to speak beyond common courtesy as he and Innie rode alongside the soldiers, and most were too unnerved by Tykhon to press any conversation. They’d made a distance of perhaps twenty or thirty miles before the day had darkened. The trees were beginning to thin out just slightly, and the balance was shifting definitely to deciduous.
As the men broke for camp, Efrain took up a position on a small rise, where a young birch stuck out from the ground. Tykhon had curled up, chewing on some of the fresh grass as he snorted and twitched, Innie asleep on his back. Efrain set out the two bowls before him, filled from a nearby stream, a fresh picked bundle of herbs, and waited.
Innie awoke at one point, flicking one amber eye over to his assembly.
“Getting prepared for your covert lesson?”
Efrain nodded as he sat, leaning against Tykhon's massive flank.
“I could wake you if you’re interested in aiding in my instruction.”
“Correcting your mistakes, you mean,” she said, “no thank you, I’ll be happy to sleep through your instruction.”
“Charming. At least I’ll be among friends,” Efrain said.
“You’re counting the beast-creature?”
“I take what I can get, including mouthy cats.”
That earned him a little laugh from the wisp-mother.
“And what exactly are you planning to do with those bowls, Efrain?”
“I was planning on making tea,” he said, “though it will be exceedingly poor quality with what fare I have.”
Innie’s laugh was not little this time as she rolled over and settled.
“Never change, Efrain,” she said, as she drifted back to sleep.
The moon was well-risen before Aya crept out from between the trees.
“Sorry,” she said, “they were a little more watchful this time. I had to wait until they were by the fire.”
“I have all the time in the world,” Efrain said, “besides, I don’t intend to keep you for very long.”
“They say we’re going to be coming to Karkos soon,” Aya said, “we might see it as early as tomorrow, the commander says.”
“That might be optimistic,” Efrain said, “maybe if we push ourselves, we could get to the hinterlands. As for actually getting into the city, that’s taking a night ride, which I’m not sure the soldiers would be happy about.”
Aya sat and processed the information in silence.
“Well, in any case, we will soon be in Karkos, barring any misfortune on the road. And we both have had quite enough of that, I think.”
The laughter was brittle, but good-natured regardless.
“So, then, magic. I haven’t done this in a very long time,” he said, “teaching, that is. As with anything, it’s best to understand the fundamentals of what we call magic. Under normal circumstances, this would take a few weeks, and we’d have lots of practical examples. Oh well, we’ll have to make do.”
He gestured to the various pieces in front of him.
“I teach in a more specific way than I imagine the paladins would, Three bedrock principles, which, while seemingly simple, take time to truly grasp. Memory, intent, emotion. A goal to find, the method to find it, and something to drive at. Do you understand?”
“I- I guess.”
“They seem a bit abstract, don’t they?” Efrain said, “don’t stress over the literal meanings of the words. They are flexible concepts, meant to capture a larger process. That is, the process of making magic.”
He held up his hand, and tried to envision the sparks of a blacksmith’s hammer. What he found instead, was a different explosion of colour and sound. The memory was surprising, and he couldn’t place it, but he remembered a name.
‘Fireworks’.
From his hand, a little stream of multicoloured tracers and dots of light flowed out into the night, vanishing into the dark. Aya gave a little gasp of delight as they floated above her head. He let his hand fall, pushing a dish of water towards the young girl.
“Do you want to take a guess at what your first actual act of magic will be?”
“Uh…” she said, looking down at the assorted plates and herbs, “are you asking me to make… tea?”
Efrain Belacore, behind his mask, smiled wider than he ever had in death.
[←Chapter 56] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 58→]

Have 2 large ponds by the house. We have regular ducks, 1 swan couple, and some infrequent geese. The male swan is a dik. He chases the geese and ducks. I didn’t care much at first because they can all evade him pretty quick, but now the ducks have chicks. He specifically goes for the mom ducks and chicks and the since chicks can’t fly yet, it’s an issue. They get separated and she has to try and evade him and keep her chicks. It’s awful to watch. Small rocks (afraid to hit a turtle by mistake) have had some success if he is close enough. I have a paddle board I can use on the pond that backs up to my house. That works great there, but it’s a hassle to try to get it to the other pond and I think those neighbors might take offense. I just ordered a 13in RC Boat (don’t know why that didn’t occur to me earlier!). Do you all think the boat will scare him or is it going to be a fight? Anyone have other ideas I may not have thought of? There are a few smaller ponds that the ducks flee to and the swans never go to, but for some reason they keep coming back to the largest ones.

Just wondering if anyone would have a rough idea of how long a leisurely paddle from the berry barn into the city would take. Just trying to coordinate rough times for our drop off and pick up. Thanks!

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Kik: bbprincessjasmine
I am 18+ and all participants and characters must be 18+

[←Chapter 55] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 57→]
Sorore awoke from the blessed, dreamless sleep of the dead to the sound of thin wind outside the waggon. The morning’s sermon on the nature of mages and magic, as well as the recitation of the night of the Burning Tree, was soothing to her. Doubts that had lingered about her ever since the eruption of fire from the church top were set, if not to rest, but to at least silence.
Frare was still fast asleep, and she knew that nothing short of a blow or a scream would wake him. It was odd that he slept with such security with the energy he displayed in waking life. Upon thinking further, Sorore reckoned that perhaps it wasn’t - the boy needed to recover his strength somehow. She picked at her brother’s cheek gently as she fussed over this feature and that, and pondered the riddles of his overflowing vitality.
The strange inkling came that it was not a matter of energy, so much as it was that he bore his confidence into the well of his dreams.
She was about to pursue this thought further before the sound of quiet footsteps outside snapped her to attention. Quickly, she pulled the blanket over her shoulders and pressed herself to her brother, slowing her breathing. The canvas waggon that had been so graciously supplied to them by the villagers rustled as it was teased apart slowly.
“Are they asleep?” came the voice of Niche.
“Yes,” another voice, Lillian’s, “Yes they’re asleep.”
With another rustle, the canvas fell closed, and after a moment, Sorore heard the distant conversation better. She could only see a glimpse of the paladins, perhaps a dozen steps away or two, sitting by the embers of a fading fire.
“What are we doing Lillian?” said Niche, sounding more tired than she’d ever heard before.
“I don’t know,” she said.
“That’s an understatement,” said Niche with a bitter laugh, “we’re letting the commander have free reign.”
“Quiet down,” whispered Lillian, “let them sleep.”
“Why? Why do we let him?” complained Niche, “the children are our charges, ours. Not his. Is he planning to steal the glory?”
“He outranks us,” said Lillian sourly, “it’s that simple. Not to mention he has a hundred men, good, strong, armed men, at beck and call. We don’t. I had hoped we could settle up in the Alonshaze with Ryzea at our backs but…”
There was a silence that hung heavy in the air. It possessed a conspiratorial quality, which disturbed Sorore. The paladins should announce their contentions boldly; skulking was beneath them.
“Do you think he told the truth? About Ryzea?” Niche said.
Something cold and oily ran through Sorore at the words. Of course Naia had told the truth - there would be no reason to lie, would there?
“The other soldiers from the fort held up his side,” Lillian said, “Half the mountain gave way onto the walls, with Ryzea patrolling atop them if the stories are true. He wasn’t lying about the delay either, I don’t think. It would’ve taken weeks to clear the passes properly.”
“I just wish that… wish that we had some idea what was going on,” Niche said as he played with a dagger, “Why were we sent here? So far, with so little?”
“The mysteries of the church run deep,” said Lillian, in a tone that almost sounded sarcastic.
“Please,” he said, “we only stumbled upon lady Aya by happenstance. My faith runs as deep as anyone, but saying that we were meant to find her… after sixty years of nothing? By better men?”
She could see his face, turned toward Lillian with a pinched expression.
“Lillian,” he said, voice grim, “what is the reason we’re really out here?”
“I don’t know,” she said, “you know full well my information is just as limited as yours.”
“Better than mine, by leagues,” he said, “my family’s not on the council of purity.”
The silence became colder and more hostile at the words.
“Do you think I know everything because of my family?” she said quietly, “Do you think they still talk to me?”
“That wasn’t meant to-”
“What? Indicate your intellect?” she said, “point proven then. Your ability to keep your mouth flapping on the other hand-”
“You want to do this right now? Fine,” Niche said, his voice rising, “You know something. You’ve been acting odd from the first moments of our journey. You have connections, regardless of how estranged you might be. And whatever you know, you’ve been keeping it from us the whole time.”
“Keep your voice down,” she hissed, “no, I don’t know anything, and if I did I-”
“Do you trust me or not?” he said, “would it be different if sister Dalia was still with us?”
Lillian’s voice faltered at that, and Sorore remembered the young, brash paladin who’d set out with them. It was a sparse memory - the warrior had always ranged further afield saying that studies were best left for priests, earning her Niche’s exasperation.
“Fine,” said Niche, “now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll take the first watch. I’ll wake you when it’s time.”
There was a sound of clinking as the paladin rose, and Sorore quickly moved to press herself to Frare’s back. She could hear the sounds of footsteps approaching the waggon once more as she settled in and stilled her breathing. As the flap opened, she let her eyes close and sank into darkness once more.
“May the lost forgive me,” intoned Lillian, before the flaps rustled shut and the footsteps receded into the distance.
For a few minutes, making certain that the paladin had moved onwards, Sorore lay absolutely still near her brother. She rolled over and peeked through the flap, finding no one nearby, she sank her fingers into her brother’s side. He stiffed, eyes snapping open. She was rather envious of her brother for how quickly he moved from rest to alertness.
“What is it?” he whispered, turning over and looking at her.
“It’s… I don’t know, something just happened with Lillian and Niche,” she said.
Frare grew more upright and attentive as she relayed what she had just witnessed outside the waggon.
“Interesting,” he murmured, messing his hair in a way that seemed precisely calibrated to annoy Sorore.
“No. No it’s not interesting,” she said, “it’s horrible. They shouldn’t be fighting like that. I hate it.”
“Calm down,” he said, shrugging, “I’m sure they’ll get past it soon enough. We should tell her.”
He gestured to another bundle of blankets, slightly rising or falling. That started Sorore, who’d not realised that Aya had made her way in. Before she could stop him, Frare had a hand on her shoulder, shaking her more harshly than a lady should’ve been shaken. To that point, Sorore grabbed his wrists and wrenched his hands away from Aya.
“Ow!” he said, rubbing his arms, “what was that for?”
“You’ll never get a wife like that. Treating her so roughly,” she said, shaking her head as her brother shrank from her admonishment.
It took a few gentle pats, but finally Aya was up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“Good morning,” she said, looking around, “is it morning?”
“Nope,” said Frare, and told her about the conversation, with Sorore providing close annotation when he strayed from the facts.
Aya looked quizzically from one twin to the other as she processed the information.
“So… what? Lillian’s hiding things? What’s new about that?” she said, “I’m sure there’s lots they don’t tell us.”
“This is different,” Sorore insisted, “this is… I’ve never heard them fight before. Not like this.”
“It’s a good question,” said Frare, and by his hurried voice, she could tell exactly what he was going to say, “I’ve been saying from the start of the trip that-”
“Oh not that fancy again!” she hissed, nearly swearing before catching herself.
“It’s not fancy,” her brother whined, “it’s a good question.”
“What is?” said Aya.
“Well, when we were back in the shattered city, I-”
“Silver,” Sorore corrected him.
“Silver. Silver city. Well, we were always surrounded by paladins, every day, all day. A dozen between the two of us, so-”
“A dozen?” Aya said, looking notably uncomfortable by the prospect.
Sorore huffed at her brother, knowing that he was going to phrase it in the worst way, and make Aya scared. Dauntless, he continued on with his ludicrous theorising.
“Yes, a dozen,” he said, “and they rotated out. Each watch was led by a light lord proper. So, when they sent us out with just three.”
“They said, if you were paying any attention Frare, which you clearly weren’t, that such a large protection force wasn’t needed,” Sorore jeered, on the verge of losing her temper with her brother, “and they said it was about time we experienced the world without protection. That we wouldn’t always have it. Like Leonard.”
Even as she said it however, she could feel something wrong about the statement. They weren’t like Leonard. No one was like Leonard. A shiver passed up her spine as she remembered the gaunt form of their brother in spirit, and his sickly yellow-tinged eyes. But such thoughts were unkind, and besides, Leonard wasn’t the main topic of conversation.
“I don’t believe it,” he said, “we were safe in Angorrah, safer than here.”
“No one knows who we are out here,” she said, “that was also a thing they said, since you clearly weren’t paying attention.”
Frare faltered at that, trying to formulate an argument against it to confirm a conclusion that he’d clearly already reached.
“But there are beasts, and… other things,” Aya said with a shiver of her own, “they wouldn’t care about you.”
“Three paladins are more than enough to deal with beasts, come on,” Sorore said with perfect conviction, “as for the other things, how would they know?”
Aya muttered vague assent, but Sorore could tell she wasn’t convinced.
“What?” she demanded, “what is it?”
“Nothing,” she said, “but it still seems a little odd. Maybe we should just ask Lillian about it?”
“No!” both twins rounded on her, possibly a little too loud.
“What? Why?” she said, “if someone’s keeping something from you, you should at least ask them. If they say no, then you drop it.”
It was said with such perfect ease that Sorore could see Aya asking every question she ever thought out loud to her parents. There would be some things you never asked in polite society, and the girl would have to know to avoid embarrassment. Making a mental note of teaching her about it later, Sorore chose to discontinue the point.
“I’m sure it's just an odd patch. We’ve been through some strange things,” she said, “nothing much to worry about. Let’s go back to bed, before we wake up Lillian.”
After some humming and hahhing, the trio pulled the blankets onto themselves, and fell fast asleep.
The morning, when it came, was quite beautiful, as far as mornings in the mountains went anyways. They rode along in the wagon, Niche drive, and Lillian riding alongside and ahead. The road was a rough beaten tract through the trees, but it had seen enough use to minimise the worst of the bumps and shakes. Sorore had engaged Aya in a childhood game of Shoesal, using a pouch of numbered tiles she’d carved herself. Aya soon proved to be a competent player, although Sorore could beat her and Frare without much difficulty.
Lunch brought another lesson, this time mastered by Lillian, sitting inside the wagon.
“All right, you have questions don’t you?” she said, never having been one for the more formal speech of the lesson, and looking tired besides.
“About magic?” Aya spoke up.
“Yes. I can’t claim any great specialty, but I’ll share what I can.”
“Well, what is magic then?” she asked, “No one’s explained that to me.”
Her face seemed oddly focused on Lillian’s, almost like a challenge. Perhaps it was the result of last night’s conversation, which made Sorore feel sorry for the paladin.
“The church teaches that magic and faith are distant cousins. One allows you to perform spells, the other, miracles. You’ve already seen an example of this, out on the rooftop.”
She clenched her fist and held it up, within a few moments, a golden light emanated from within.
“This is an example of such a miracle, as humble as it may be,” she said, “we use it to defend the faith. Over time, you’ll be instructed by those better versed in such things, on how to perform miracles of your own.”
“We’ll be using magic?” Aya said.
“Miracles. I appreciate the confusion,” Lillian said, “from a distance, they can look similar. What’s far more important, however, is the source. Our miracles are holy, untainted, because they are produced by our faith in the Lost. In essence, we believe in them, and they give us the strength necessary to serve the faith.”
Aya looked like she was about to say something else, and Sorore willed her to not provoke the paladin. The girl ultimately shrank back, a questioning look in her eyes as she settled. It all seemed perfectly straightforward to Sorore, although she’d been raised in a city with a proper cathedral. Any doubt or anger towards her sister in spirit fell away when she remembered that Aya was from a remote mountain village, and was filled with pity.
“So now you know the difference,” said Lillian, letting her fist fall, “we don’t usually speak much on it. The laity can get confused easily, and we don’t mean to cause more than is necessary.”
“So, we’re going to be able to fight monsters?” Frare said, clearly excited at the prospect.
Of course it was the prospect of violence that excited him the most. He couldn’t help it, being the Bequeathed of Elizarhein, but did he really have to be so forward about it? She still hadn’t figured out what being ‘fertile’ meant in the context of her role as the chosen of Nafthatazia. ‘Life-giving’ made a little bit more sense to her.
She looked at Aya, the chosen of Salahazdrey, there could be no doubt. She wondered what her role would be in the coming years. Something to do with maidens, and water, or something like that. She would have to ask Lillian later about the specifics.
Lillian continued on, answering various questions on what kinds of miracles there were and what they were used for. Frare, of course, was mostly interested in those that were used in combat, while Aya was more interested in those that were specifically associated with tales of the church. Sorore just sat there, happily soaking up the explanations that were offered.
This was her place of peace, where everything was calm and made sense. The only thing that chafed at her meditation was the knowledge that Lillian must be hiding something. But even that overcast shadow didn’t do much to dampen her contentment. As for the other two, when they’d finally peppered the paladin with their last questions, she got up.
“Niche must be tired of leading the horses around,” she concluded, “I’ll have to resume my riding.”
The rest of the afternoon passed without much incident, and the trio amused themselves in various ways, although there was a strange distance between the twins and Aya. Chalking this up to merely being new, Sorore ignored it with what grace she could muster as she played games and recited stories from her youth.
When they stopped for the second evening, it was then that she noticed Aya slipping out for the first time. She was gone perhaps twenty to thirty minutes before carefully slipping quietly into the waggon. Something seemed strange about her, as Sorore glanced at her sleeping form. It seemed more defined, more solid compared to the world around her. Once again, merely chalking it up to an innocuous walk, or perhaps the need to relieve herself, Sorore quickly fell back to sleep.
Ringing hammers heralded her dreams, along with the feeling of heat radiating across her face. She could feel her sibling’s shoulders as she cuddled closer to him, though he seemed both immense and impossibly dense. Cold stone was under her side and to her back, something smooth and black, though she couldn’t see it.
What she could see was something immense before her, a collection of revolving rings, of glass, of metal, of stone, of substances that shone soft like velvet. The thing oscillated and warped into a fantastical facsimile of an immense creature. The gears and rings that comprised its being span and interlocked in a ticking choir to complement its pronouncements.
Thunder claps echoed across the landscape, now a yellow-grey desert of cracked mud and wizened trees. Footfalls shuddered her skull as it rose between shattered mountains, reaching clockwork claws to grip still smouldering rubble. A single glassy orb, within which turned a furious molten fire like the heart of the earth, focused at her from the head of the structure-beast.
The dream ruptured with a grinding bellow.
When Sorore awoke, it was with a pounding heart and the thinnest tracery of light, glowing across her arms.
[←Chapter 55] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 57→]

Last year I upgrade from my 2015 first gen Chevy Cruze automatic to a 2019 Chevy Equinox AWD and was so used to shifting in manual mode now I don't know what to do with my right hand since the Low gear doesn't shift if your foots to far down if anyone has any ideas even fake ones like fake paddle shifters or something please do let me know

Hey y'all. I teach sushi classes all over the southeast and have been doing so for 11 years (7 of them as a full-time job). I'm incredibly busy, teaching in public as well as doing in-home classes, corporate events, sorority classes and even teaching at universities (including three SEC schools.)
Here's my question:
I'm looking into putting a plan together to train sushi chefs on how to teach my exact class in other parts of the country. This isn't something that just anyone can do; you'd need to not only have a pretty well-rounded knowledge of sushi making, but also (the most important part) be able to stand in front of 30 strangers and teach them the class without having stage fright or being nervous. Having the confidence to be able to answer random questions thrown out by students is also a plus, although the class itself has been designed (over those 11 years) to answer what they care about and leave out the things that they have no interest in. This has taken all of those years to hone down into the perfect 2 hour class, and should be fairly easy for anyone to learn to teach, as it would mostly be memorization. For instance; if you walked into my class at 7:05 pm three nights in a row, I'd be saying the same thing each time.
My idea is to handle everything except the teaching of the class myself, and all my chefs would be responsible for is buying their proteins and veg (tuna & crabstick + cucumbers typically) and showing up to teach the class. This would be a great way for a chef working for a weekly paycheck to teach a couple classes a month on a weeknight & make $600 for each full class. I've already got a system in place for finding the space to hold the classes, generating ticket sales and a "script" for the class that is a sure fire way to make a group of strangers want to be your very best friend by the end of class. There's humor, hands-on rolling, and lots of learning involved in the class.
I have incredible reviews and the reactions of my students to making their own perfect sushi rolls is the best part of what I do. I have made dozens of friends over the years; been invited to their beach houses, weddings, parties and generally have had a fucking blast while doing something I love.
I'm just now putting a packet together. There will be no cost to start up, but I will be taking a portion of the ticket sales (which will not affect your ability to make $600 if we have a sold out class) for providing the space + the training materials, generating sales, and promotion. We would of course include an NDA and a time-limit non-compete for our chefs, but in the end you'd have an option to teach up to 2 classes per month on weeknights and add up to $1200 to your monthly income.
Constructive thoughts and questions are of course appreciated. I am a pretty good sushi chef, but I'm a great teacher and this formula is proven to work.....I just can't be in 7 places at once!
Thanks for your time ~

Hi all, I'm planning to build a air-pressure powered cannon for an event in a couple of months, and while the carriage and the gun itself aren't that big of a problem, I'm not a wheelwright, just a guy with moderate diy skills and massive over-ambitions.
For it to be worth it (rules-wise) it needs to be a field carriage (like this https://www.go2gbo.com/forums/attachments/blackpowder-mortar-cannon-sponsored-seacoast-artillery/131612-1-4-scale-1841-field-carriage-small-cannon.jpg), with a carriage height of at least 50 cm (20 in), with 80 cm (32 in) being preferable. I also basically need them to be detachable for storage reasons and work somewhat decently, the con is going to involve quite a bit of walking over a field with varying degrees of sloping. (I'm difficult I know)
A lot of people are selling old wheels in my area, but most are half rotted, not sold as matching pairs and all are ridiculously expensive. I'm not going to spend 70€ on a single wheel in the vain hope of finding a matching one for the same price.
Do any of you smart people have any ideas how to make something decent for that?
(At this point I'm almost considering using two (or four doubled up) bicycle wheels and hiding them inside a large shroud, like a steam paddle riverboat, but that might look ridiculous

[←Chapter 54] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 56→]
The silence that hung over the tent was absolute, with only the slight wind in the bows breaking it up. Naia sat with the faintest of smiles tugging at his lips.
“And what, exactly, is that meant to imply?” he said, the smile coming out in full.
“Plainly, then - it’s foolhardy to send your most valuable assets into the fire with an under equipped force,” said Efrain, his patience with this game already up.
“Yes, it must,” Naia said, “alas, the mystery of the church is not to be readily questioned, especially if one wants to reach a position of understanding it.”
‘It was an open secret among those in higher society’ Efrain translated.
“Then why you?” he said, “you hardly seem like an uninformed man.”
“Allow me to divulge a little secret, Efrain, though it must not go outside this tent,” said Naia, “originally, the crusade was to be lead by a lesser noble’s son, who, I unfortunately must say, is not in the favour of society at the moment.”
‘It was doomed from the start so they elected to kill two birds with one stone.’
“And yet, here we are,” said Efrain.
“Indeed. Me and mine saw it for the honour it was. Frankly I was shocked that nobody else did.”
“I see. A lapse of judgement among nobles? I’d never thought I’d see the day.”
“Far be it from me to speak ill of the administrators of our great society. Their duties keep them quite busy. As for my superiors, how could they not take notice? The church was asking for armed men, afterall.”
“And out of all the people they could’ve sent, they sent the young commander with ‘unorthodox’ recruits.”
“Why, they thought it was a great way to prove myself, as did I.”
“It must be hard,” said Efrain, “getting such a difficult job assigned to you.”
“I do what I must, though, I must admit this has had its fair share of headaches. Wonderful surprises too.”
Efrain stopped for a moment, to consider the conclusion that all of this pointed to. It was something so large, so at odds with everything he understood about the church, that it seemed almost impossible. But he had to be sure, absolutely sure that they were on the same page.
He put up his hand onto the table, and felt magic return to him. It was stronger, more definite than before, almost… wilder. Pushing that sensation aside, he remembered crowded inns and temples, the clamour of people, all fading into the background. The air around the pair shimmered ever so slightly, and Naia blinked.
“What did you just do?” he said, looking around.
“Nothing major. Stay in close, or it’ll break. Our conversation will be just a little less intelligible for prying ears.”
“Ah. Useful,” said the captain, nodding in appreciation.
“Hardly,” Efrain said, “anyone with any knowhow could break this with ease. I hope you don’t have another secret mage hiding in your retinue who’d listen in.”
“I’d be surprised,” said Naia.
“Very well,” Efrain said, leaning forward and preparing to drop the axe, “so, why is the church so eager to get rid of its oh-so-special Bequeathed?”
The silence returned once more, slightly distorted through the muffling charm Efrain had cast.
“You’re certain that this,” Naia said, waving around them, “is intact?”
“Quite. Answer the question, commander,” he said, “perhaps they’re not as valuable as I was led to believe.”
Naia sat for a few moments, mulling over the blunt truth, then took a deep breath.
“They are valuable. Incredibly so. They are living, breathing symbols of the faith, but that’s not all.”
Efrain nodded, waiting for the captain to continue.
“If half the stories of their battle prowess is true, then they are golden military assets. Though they haven’t been used as such for a very long time.”
“Ah,” Efrain said, as the pieces began to fall into place, “so that’s why they sent you.”
“I may or may not have been selected for this reason,” he said, the smile more dry than knowing.
“And if anything went wrong, if the precious Bequeathed came back with all these strange ideas about the church, they could blame the unorthodoxy of the commander.”
Something twisted in Naia’s smile - Efrain had touched on something painful.
“Precisely,” he said, “although I would like to believe that they chose me because they knew I’d avoid doing things so crudely.”
“So, they want you to… what, drive a wedge between the Bequeathed and the church? Subtly, of course.”
“You know, I was planning to tell you this all after you agreed to join me,” Naia said flatly.
“Ha!” Efrain said, “age and experience, young man.”
“Clearly,” Naia said, spreading his arms in defeat, “so, I stand before you, uncloaked. What do you think?”
“I think that there would be at least one member of the church disguised in your retinue, no?”
Naia’s smile grew cold and thin at the mention.
“The man wouldn’t listen to reason. We counselled him to stick with our company, but he had other, more pious ideas about wandering in the wild forest.”
Efrain nodded - he hadn’t really expected anything else.
“And what about the paladins, do they suspect anything?” he said, sitting back.
“Lillian is of high birth. I don’t doubt she hasn’t heard something that might make her suspicious. Niche might’ve but he’s… well stupid would be a disservice to both of them. Niche is certainly more naive than Lillian. As for Sphernt, she’s vanished, but, of course, you wouldn’t know her.”
“Another paladin?” Efrain groaned, trying to drive home the exasperation to cover him.
“Indeed, and far less pleasant than the others,” Naia laughed, “I know, a charming prospect. She was bullheaded, refused to listen or wait, so I sent her on ahead. As far as I know she’s buried under a snowdrift somewhere. We were going to search for her, but Aya’s finding threw everything into disarray, even her fraternity dropped it.”
Efrain almost let out an audible sigh of relief, but he managed to catch himself at the last moment.
“Well, in any case that makes your ultimate job easier, if you so choose to join me,” Naia said.
“Hold up,” said Efrain, “let me guess. You can’t act because questioning the authority of the church would compromise your personal position, as well as make the children suspicious. Given that I am potentially the most unorthodox person you could employ, you would use me to get to the children, and then foist the blame on me if anything went wrong.”
“Phrased it better than I could,” Naia said.
“Well, I can certainly see the appeal,” Efrain said dryly, “but what makes you think I would agree to that? Say, hypothetically, I went all the way to the silver city with you. You suddenly blame me for corrupting the children, then its my head.”
“A fair point, but consider - I am so close to being outcast that I need you, and if the children spoke out in your defence, they might well eclipse my influence. In addition, who would it reflect badly on if I did so? That would only worsen my position by leaps and bounds.”
“Fine,” Efrain said, “so what role did you have for me?”
“Oh that? Simple. You’ve been doing it already by most accounts,” Naia said, “teach them magic.”
Efrain stopped to consider it for a moment - no doubt he’d been briefed in full after the church incident. The fact that Naia hadn’t executed the mage for that alone spoke volumes to his intentions.
“And if, if, I were to take you up on this offer, well, first off, how far would this arrangement go? Secondly, how would I get around the paladins? I imagine they’ll be hostile.”
“That would be your job. From the sound of it, you’ve already got Aya on your side. Arrange meetings, teach her subtly - I’m sure someone of your ‘age and experience’ could figure something out. As for how long, if you have no desire to come to Angorrah, why not until we set sail? That should give you ample time.”
“And what’s in it for me, then?” he said, “Seems that I’m taking an awful lot of risk for simple promises.”
“What, a prospective general as a friend is not enough?” laughed Naia.
“Prospective. I’m not inclined to weigh reward on the whims of other unknown people,” Efrain snorted.
“A reasonable concern, though it’s only a week or two of work for a potential lifetime of benefits.”
“Granted. And what are you to say if I did not find the prospect of using children as pieces appealing?”
Naia arched an eyebrow at this, but the smile remained.
“This is the world we live in. In a way, if they should happen to throw their lot in with us, as it were, they’ll be getting a better life. The army is not quick to dispose of such valuable tools, unlike the more capricious elements of the church. They would not have to live by scripture and ceremony.”
“By throwing them at enemies, until they’re spent?” Efrain said.
The silence in the tent took on another character, something colder and heavier.
“You’ve said your knowledge of Angorrah was out-of-date. Do you know what they did to bring the merchant cities of the coast in line?”
Efrain shook his head.
“It’s quite simple. The palaces of Ennen’alla? Smokey marble with brass accents. Beautiful, beautiful buildings. Angorrah chose them to be their examples - now they’re little more than ruins and dust. From the other cities, rather than go to war, they offered up noble children as wards. I’m sure you can imagine; Hundreds, thousands of days, living under suspended sentences? A sword hanging over your head, waiting, begging to fall, based on the slightest provocation you have no control over.”
“This is supposed to be a positive comparison?”
“The Bequeathed, whether or not they and their guardians realise it, are living under the exact same sentence. Welcoming them back into the church might delay it for a time. The military is ruthless, I won’t deny, but it’s interested in service. Which is better? That the children are a pawn of the faith, used in political games across the continent, liable to be sent to a bitter end based on whim? Or, they live a tough but honoured life, and, in time, might rise to see the power and freedom to dictate their own destiny through generalship?”
“I can see why they sent you, commander,” Efrain said, “you’ve got quite the tongue.”
“I offer simple truths in pretty prose, that’s all,” Naia said, “if you want to look out for their wellbeing, then it might be best you align with me anyways. As for other rewards, I’m a commander, which comes with privileges. If you want gold or valuables, I can probably get them with time. Access to influence, knowledge? Those are easy enough, with the right friends, which I’ve made a point of making. All this potential for a few days of work, Efrain.”
The cloth rustled slightly in the breeze.
“And I’ll be free to go, alive, unharmed, not immediately killed for knowing your secret?” Efrain said.
“Guaranteed.”
Efrain examined the man’s face in depth, noting the lines that gave away his age. The dark hair with just a hint of blue mingling with the black, although whether that was dye or somehow natural he could barely guess. It was a dangerous gambit, predicated on the word of a man who by his own confession was willing to murder and scheme to get what he wanted. Still, he couldn’t deny the sway of the promise - a general of Angorrah who owed him a personal favour, that would be a very potent tool indeed.
This was again, assuming the man kept any kind of faith, which Efrain had mixed evidence to show for it. Still, if he was only going as far as the port, that would be fairly safe, or so he hoped. Maybe perhaps, if he could gain some trust with the paladins, play them off eachother…
This was getting too complicated for his taste, and the dangers of a company of soldiers around him didn’t sweeten things. Still, there was also the commandment of the River, and he was interested in the children and their talents. If Naia spoke the truth of its word, then there could be very good reasons for him to work with the commander. Then again, it’d also warned Innie of his death should he pursue this course, maybe this offer was that threat recast.
“Well?” said Naia.
There was nothing for it, Efrain surmised, at least until Karkos.
“It’s a deal. I’ll do what I can, until you sail,” Efrain said, holding out his hand and shaking it with Naia in the Karkosian fashion.
“Good. I would lay out the mission and your role, but you’ve guessed all you need to know already. This all stays between us and no one else, not even my captains. On pain of death, Efrain.”
“Understood, commander,” said Efrain, fully conscious of the irony.
“As for a method of approach,” Naia said, “the paladins have taken charge of much of the children’s education. However, I’m sure I could come up with an excuse to educate them on something. Maths, perhaps, or military history. We might be able to arrange them to have time away from the paladins.”
“So you want me to teach them the arts,” Efrain said, “and so doing, shake the foundations of the church.”
“More or less,” Naia chuckled, “you should return and recover your strength. Your companion was quite worried.”
“Oh really?” Efrain said, dispelling the charm, and leaving the tent.
He walked back to the circle of waggons he’d found himself in not twenty minutes ago, reflecting on the conversation he’d had. When he made it back to the one he’d slept in, he heard the sounds of voices within the canvas. Peaking in, he found Aya sitting before Innie, chatting away.
“I see you two have become good friends,” he said as he clambered in.
“Oh!” she said, “friends? I don’t know. Maybe not friends.”
“Stop teasing her and sit down Efrain,” Innie said.
“Fine, fine,” Efrain said, lowering himself onto the wooden slats.
“Now, as I was saying dear, “ Innie continued, “the talent of ‘seeing’ magic is much more about feeling it than actually using your eyes. You could use your ears, or nose, or tongue for that matter. It’s about the communication, much less about how you receive it.”
“You mean people can taste magic?” Aya giggled with a note of awe.
“Taste, and hear, and smell. More attuned beasts use their nose, like with everything. Humans tend to use their eyes, hence they tend to ‘see’ magic. Well, with some exceptions.”
Innie turned judgemental eyes to Efrain.
“I was a beginner,” Efrain said, “besides, I quickly grew out of it.”
“Why?” Aya said, “what is he talking about?”
“This one,” Innie said with relish, “started smelling when I first taught him.”
“That’s true?” Aya said, eyes wide, but with an amused smile creeping onto her face, “what does magic smell like?”
“Alright, you’ve had your fun,” said Efrain, “it can smell like many things. It depends on the magic, it depends on the wielder. I ran into a fire wyrm once and everything smelled like burnt flesh for days after. Magic stinks for better or worse.”
“That was about the time you switched over to seeing. I guess you learned your lesson,” Innie said.
“But that’s not all magic can convey. Sensory information is but a pittance. More complex things, emotions, moods, entire concepts can be compressed into magic. The language we spoke to the trees in the pourjava’s hollow? You can express much more with magic, much faster, than with mere language alone.”
“The language you spoke in the-”
“Tematek, a kind of template, a mould which magic creatures developed various dialects from. Most magical creatures with the intellect to speak a language will speak Tematek or some variant of it.”
“So does that mean we’re speaking it right now?” she said, the whites of her eyes shining in the dim light.
“No, I speak human tongues as well,” said Innie, “the process of learning Tematek is a long one. You’ll simply learn how to see this way.”
“Could I learn it?”
Oh, this is too easy, Efrain thought, hearing Naia's voice echo about ‘opportunities’ falling into laps.
“You certainly could. It would be as hard as learning any other language however. And there’s the fact your paladin guardians are rather… possessive of you.”
“Well, they’re not here right now, I checked,” she said, and Efrain thought he saw a glimmer of pride at the deception, “they’re sleeping. Niche tried to keep watch but sleep caught up.”
“So, you’re saying you want to go behind the back of the church’s representatives to practise magic. The penalty for which could be death,” he said flatly, “that’s an impressive commitment.”
“That’s all they’ve said for the past few days,” she said without pause, “‘magic is dangerous’, ‘mages aren’t to be trusted’, ‘the Lost this’. Maybe they’re right.”
“And yet here you are.”
She nodded.
“They took me away from my home, my family. I don’t know anyone here, I don’t know what they’re planning for me. If I trusted you, would I be going on more than trusting them?”
Efrain chuckled.
“No, I suppose not,” he said, “although I think I do have one advantage.”
“What?”
“Your mother asked me to take care of you, if I could,” Efrain said, “I met her, before I ran into your group.”
To the girl’s credit, she held her expression, though the explosion of shock in her eyes were unmistakable, as well as the quiver in her jaw.
“You-you did? Is she- is she alright?”
Efrain paused. Maybe it was an old kindness that stirred below lost memories. Maybe it was mere self-interest, to pursue a relationship by putting the girl at ease.
“I’m sure she’s fine,” he lied, “but, we’d best get started, before your minders get up.”
[←Chapter 54] [Cover Art] [My Links] [Index] [Discord] [Subreddit] [Chapter 56→]

Today's games repulse me with their copycat, timid and shallow character. Though it seems like there is a variety of concepts flashing around, in practice games revolve around the same half-dozen tropes. Their hallmark sign is that it is nothing that is not seen on TV. If the game's idea is not a reflection of the modern world from someone who, by all appearances, has never read a real book or has experience to share, then it's Pirates in Some Carribean, or the Victorian Age When Jack the Ripper Roamed in a Black Cab, or the Middle Ages with Standard Treachery, or Abstract Space Exploration. I was sick and tired of this a few years ago, now I have all but given up on this art form. Even when the concept is interesting, it is rarely taken far or with force. Neutered developers are afraid to give offense and as a result make bland, short-breathing stuff, but I think the sharp edges are never there to begin with anymore. I don't know anybody who sets out to defy the world, stand apart from its simulations and blandishments and spit a good gob in its ugly square face.
I have never had an opportunity to make a game of my own (it takes a team besides everything else), but I have made mods for a very old RPG for years - new mechanics, plots, magic, quests, effects, scripts, writing and so on. I have more or less put that old engine on its head, though I know hardly anyone will ever find out about my efforts. This is to say that I am not a pure theorist. Some time in the winter, bored and exasperated, I decided to do a quick marathon of game ideas - for RPG, quests, simulations, something in-between - and see how many I can whip out on the run. I would like something from here picked up by a company, but I am not advertising. I realize that is probably not something that might happen. It was a good exercise for me, however. Here are the results for all to see. I did ten first, then three more occurred to me.
1 ) Circa Caotica
You play the role of Jabsh, a clown of a traveling circus, who suddenly discovers that he is no orphan but the son (Raka, daughter for female players) of the director, Maestro Leotardi. Minutes later after making the sobbing confession the boss is swallowed by the Crocodile Man in a suspicious accident. You have to own up to the unexpected legacy and step into the tight and tall boots of the director. Your responsibility is to keep the circus going by fine-tuning and inventing acts based on ideas solicited over regular all-troupe brainstorming sessions despite little starting respect from the others, who have decided to unionize as well (the mentalist takes notes). You must keep drawing in crowds to avert the bankruptcy, earn respect and manipulation points and find the truth behind Leotardi's death and the disappearance of the Big Green cashbox with everyone's last year salary and the medallion that supposedly bears the face of your mother the same evening. All the while you still have to perform in regular clown acts with your partner. You can play as a red clown or a white clown, and the other type will be your foil.
2) Nachtwaffe
"Ah, count. Decided to join me for a walk?" Vampires steal planes from the Nazi airforce to zoom through the dark skies over the Balkans and turn humans to make more of their own. You start out as a single nosferatu, converted from an arrogant German, and must find and raid small airports and landing strips across the forests and mountains of Roumania, impersonate a living officer to get supplies and fuel, avoid communist guerillas, find and build places to hide during the day and choose which humans to turn to expand your force. Naturally, it is all quite a dead end, as the war is bound to finish sooner or later, which radio broadcasts confirm, and what then will happen to the vampiric empire? But this is something that the gameplay begins to convey to the player gradually. Hopefully the fate of someone who has no future but still does his all will touch some dormant strings in players' hearts.
3) Yuck!
The sleepy Tibetan village of Dongtso is unaware of what lurks in the bushes and the mountains: you, the desperately lonely yak-man. Born with a big head and two horns, you have only one connection to civilization: the gold ring in your nose. Squinting cross-eyed, you can just make out some kind of symbols on it, and a banner over the village shrine features ones like them. This must be the key. You have to lurk about the supersititious hamlet, helping the folk at night and out of sight with small chores and evesdropping on their reactions and conversations until you can pick up a few words, including, at some point, "Hello." Since this is a game about Tibet and shaping up something rebellious, let the tongue be one of Tibet's many and accompanied by Tibetan script. You can train to pronounce the words when you dare show yourself to children, old people and widows, to improve from mooing to legible speech, but until then you have to dodge men's hunting parties and survive. With enough good deeds and a few friends, you might win the folk's confidence and stand before the village council so that someone might teach you to read. The quest becomes complicated, however, by the appearance of the army of People's Republic of China that establishes a base in the village in its push to subdue Tibet. The year is 1952. One of the newcomers is a local - a renegade llama who, the villagers say, has been on many supernatural journeys in the mountains, even to Shangri-La, but is now wearing the uniform of Tibet's conquerors. The writing on the ring, deciphered, identifies him as your father. What will happen next?
4) Footlocker
This is a soccer-themed RPG, but you view the sport from the point of view of a bookie besieged on all sides by mafia. To pay back his debt he resolves on a colossal set-up: first get control of an underdog team, then bring them at least to the regional semi-finals and, with the bets in their favor, make them lose in a big way. The thugs are ready to provide cash handouts, leg-breaking, knuckle sandwiches, addictive opioids and more to get the right people on the team and stubborn elements out, but at the cost of increased control and cut of the profits. You must balance their appetities with placating sports authorities, the press, sponsors and police. In the final match a dilemma presents itself: go through with the plan and ruin the team or defy the gangsters and take your chances on the right side of the tracks?
5) And See It Again For the First Time
Starting out from your homeland on three caravels, you unfurl the sails and set out to circumnavigate the world. The globe is randomly generated every time and rolls away at the horizon, with the map, continents and straits unknown beforehand, in the manner of River Raid. Your characters are the three ships and their crews, condition and supplies are their stats. Dropping anchor at strange shores and dealing with natives will be necessary but dangerous as they fight with each other, shuffle and migrate like microbes. Loss of crew can't be repaired. At least one of the ships must find the passages and make it to the fabulous Gate of Makhamedi, enter it from the far side and begin the journey home.
6) The Person and the Essence
In the beginning chapter you play Sauqin, second-in-command to general Varziranga, head of the army of the Arcolan Empire sent to quash the rebellion of Panlaa, who has tried to bring his province to secede. The imperial army has crushed Panlaa'a troops a fortnight ago and has got him shut in the Ravine of the Gold Specks. Complete victory is near, but the commander has been acting strangely since the battle. On this decisive night his behavior spins out of control just as Panlaa makes a sudden sally from his trap, causing great confusion. As his lieutenant, it falls to you to maintain order in dealing with the various officers as well as the clerics of the One, who insist that Panlaa, a lapsed pagan, be given to them for execution once he is captured. The ending of the chapter will determine whether Panlaa ends in the emperor's prison in the capital, Hotharsoom, alive or dead at the clerics' hands, whether Varziranga will be simply demoted or disgraced.
Chapter two will take place in the capital city. You will have been promoted to a top military command for your performance, only to become embroiled in an intrigue involving the emperor's controlling mother, a consequential schism in the church of the One over whether the head of state is eternally the same person reincarnated or a series of persons, demagogues in the public and lurking pagans with unclear motives. Other chapters will follow, and the endings will determine who sits on the throne and who stands behind it, whether state policy is in principle subject to revision and criticism or not and whether the pagan faiths are crushed without mercy or adopted into the church of the One. The material here is Byzantium, Egypt with the notion of the pharaoh as incarnate Horus and the empires of southeast Asia. Some early Christian heresies also deserve to be revivified.
7) Of Rats and Men
You are a rat trapped in the gears of the Trumpet of Doom, the hugest, heaviest and most advanced steam ship ever to paddle the Grumuous Sea. This basin is famously salty enough to let even an iron float for a time, which, the public money finally gathered, made it the perfect road to carry the 25-inch-gunned ("24 + 1 for Paterland!") Trumpet to the shores of Festaly and at last give those Festalians what for! The citizenry is cheering with patriotic joy, the brass bands are blowing. The ship rats are less happy, especially you, who were captain Reissenpouf's pet before you managed to scramble through a porthole and below the desk as he was buttering a toast. You are nearly panicky with fright. Unlike the locals there, you have spent time locked with the diagrams in the captain's safe and know that the battleship is very weakly armored below the waterline. Someone must have made a good bit of business during the construction selling the metal. When the Trumpet comes up against the Festalians with their triton suicides or their rumored counterpart ship, the Rough Musician, not even the Grumuous Sea will keep it from ending up as a gigantic, barnacled wreck on the ocean floor.
To avoid this fate you only have so much time to organize the other rats for systematic sabotage. The game's world is the enormous ship below and above the deck. The humans of the crew are, of course, adamant in their resolve to get themselves killed, so they will repair the servos, the cables turning the massive gears, the ball bearings, the hydraulics and the rest almost as quickly as those are destroyed. This effort will be headed by the near-transparent, monochrome spindle of a man, Admiral Hel, the leader of the expedition, always of his private high deck, sipping his black milk and staring through his spectacles ahead to where TOD's fate awaits it. If all of you ratfolk together gnaw through and spoil enough of the ship's devices, however, the captain might just have the authority to radio Kaiser Walzer of the decision to turn back... though you personally may also have to sneak back into his cabin to sit on his pillow and intone suggestions as he sleeps. The fact that you are an albino rat and at first come across as a crazy visionary doesn't help, and neither does being a female rat and having to give birth to a litter every so often. The current mate can be deputied on tasks while lactating. Other ships may sometimes be encountered in the sea, with different results, and you may improve your reputation in the murine community by predicting these encounters, if you check the looking glass often enough. The length of the game, and hence the difficulty, depends on the distance to Festalian waters - from two weeks' journey to three months.
8) Cosmic Choir
You play as one of the planets of the solar system. The other actors and your partners are the thieving and scurrilous Mercury, the lusty and sly Venus, the militant braggart Mars and so on. And you are the meh-in-the-middle Earth, and in this group of strong personalities stand out with your unique ability of Rational Decision (it would be nice to get Woody Allen for the voice acting, were he younger). Other planets have other powers, and all of them certain characteristics and appetites (for tasty meteorites, for more intimate or more standoffish orbits and so on). The plot revolves around the announcement of the Sun that it has had enough of burning hydrogen and wants to retire, going immediately into the red giant phase, which would, of course, burn up all of the inner planets and kick the outer planets way out. For this the star has recruited a planet-sized asteroid, large enough to pull most of the star fuel away so that the moribund transformation may be set in motion. The euthanatic dark planet is whirring ever closer. Before it gets on a near enough orbit to disrupt the Sun the other planets must find out what caused this sudden depression and persuade their ruler and source of life otherwise. (The answer is that the Sun has always dreamt of going nova but lacks substance.) Playing as the only inhabited planet, you must also keep the life forms on you alive through all of the maneuvering. If you can get Mars to cooperate, however, you may shorten the distance enough for humanity and some of the ecosystems to make the leap and found Musk City there, and then you won't have to care about your surface anymore.
9) Paris, 1245 A.D.
A meticulously researched simulation of the criminal underworld of medieval Paris and the worlds that abutted on it: those of the church, guilds, city watch, the university, lepers, the court and so on. No shortcuts and simplifications for babies who can't tell a Benedictine from a Cistercian. A dynamically filled encyclopedia may be included, though, and remain permanently unlocked for later replays. The main character is a vagrant and a thief. This may be a persistent sandbox, possibly a multiplayer RPG, or it may have a plot, but strictly within historical realities.
10) The Last Supper
You play the role of Jesus, son of God, in the company of the twelve disciples. The game should probably be in first person. (The Sermon of the Mount and such may be shown in cutscenes, or they may be challenges in quiz form.) The time period is your wanderings in Judea after the baptism and until the last night before the arrest. The background is the Judaic society at the time and its Roman controllers, somewhat historically accurate. This is a detective story, a wholldoit where you need to figure out who is best suited to betray you in due time so that you may prep him for the job and finally give him the impetus to "do it quicker" at the Last Supper. For Christ certainly needed someone to betray him. It's not always Judas: the identity of the potential traitor, along with his motives, will vary randomly between playthroughs. Incidents and encounters along the road, both recorded in the Bible and invented, will liven up the experience and better inform you about the personalities of the disciples, building on but going beyond what is known (Peter with his short temper, the lofty John an so on).
11) Cuadrophobia
Ships and the sea again. This time you are a typical sailor with an atypically strong survival instinct on one of the vessels in a colossal game of Battleship between Our Guy and the Other Player. Accordingly, there are two grids firing at each other: your side's and the enemy's, though you only get to travel across your own. The ship you begin on is chosen at random: it may be anything in size from a single-squarer to a five-squarer. Smaller ships are less likely to be hit, of course, but when a ship is finished, it sinks, and you with it. The purpose of the game is to survive until Our Guy's victory, which programmatically is likely but not guaranteed and happens about 70% of the time. To do this you must desert on a regular basis, setting out in a dinghy to a ship more favored in the current situation. However, the dinghy only travels three squares per turn, and you can only spend two turns in the open sea before dying. You also need time on board ships to access their radio broadcasts, which, besides playing some inspirational propaganda, update the picture of the grid as the battle rages. Without it you are limited to paddling to vessels that you can directly see. The role-playing element comes from dealing with ship commanders, who all take their duties and titles - captain of Cruiser! captain of Battleship! - very seriously, from picking up supplies in floating debris and from acquiring special abilities that let you, for example, paddle an extra square farther. Is war evil? Is it to be hated, or is our side to be cheered on? After all, if Our Guy loses, this will all have been in vain.
12) Standardom
In this game of life, dedicated to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), you must pass through all of the Gates of Conformity to win your ultimate prize - death from old age, as opposed to suicide. The option to kill yourself is always available in the menu. Being the hero and chickenshit that you are, though, you are determined to submit to every humiliation just so you can press forward. The world of the game is a vertical platform that moves with you along the Y axis, which represents time from some random year forwards: you may begin at 100 B.C., 1824 A.D., 12749 j-Spec and so on. It is really all the same where on the timeline you are dropped off. As with other platformers, once the screen has moved, there is no going back. You can walk freely to the left and right, however, pick up bonuses, disarm threats and converse with characters. Going up, every so often the screen is intersected by a wall with a gate in it. Your character's silhouette must either match the cut of the gate or be smaller to pass through. You start out small as a baby, a little circle, but very soon handicaps such as Discovery of Talent, Unusual Upbringing, Independent Spirit or Love of Sex will begin to rush at you to complicate your silhouette with Г, & and other such protrusions. You will also grow in size until your late 20s. Luckily, opportunities will also present themselves to prune some of this exotica: Family, Steady Job, Political Engagement, Puppy, Human Interest and other bonuses can be found or obtained from conversations to simplify your puzzle to a manageable cut until such time as the years pile on and the worst is behind you. You will become smaller and smaller and able to rush through the checkpoints one after the other to the finish line.
13) Six Handshakes to Liberty
The country is suffering under a cruel dictatorship. Ar-Parason, the president-for-life, has wrung the last of resources from the nation and has now thrown it into a disastrous war. In his palace he is surrounded by guards armed to the teeth and without a shred of conscience to shoot the bastard. What can you, a humble microbiologist living in the suburbs, do about this? Nothing, it seems, until you discover a strain of bacteria that is absolutely deadly within weeks and immune to all known antibiotics except one, still not fully developed. The microbe is passed along by touch. Alas, you discover it when you become infected with it. You still have the resources to finish the research on the antibiotic and save yourself, but now you realize that you possess the perfect secret weapon to rid the country of the tyrant. Although you can't get so close to Ar-Parason in person, someone must enjoy that intimacy...
Every day you do your research at the computer, look through the press, then put on gloves and go out in search of people in contact with other people who will, you hope, ultimately carry the strain to its target. You have to follow news to figure out whose hands to shake and who to sleep with - secretaries, daughters of generals, corrupt officials - and many times the scheme will fall short of success. The chain of handshakes will terminate early somewhere, and these intermediaries will just die. But all those sacrifices are worth it, aren't they? You keep several intrigues going at once, determined to see one of them to the end. Meanwhile an epidemic is beginning in the country, Ar-Parason is starting to take precautions, and your own remaining time that could be spent on finishing the antibiotic is also running short. What is more important: life, revenge, justice, survival, honor? Your actions will be your decisions.

Just went through a situationship breakup (how 2023 of me 🙄). Really just wanting to chat so I don’t get the urge to text my ex…if you can call him that?
Anyway I’m stuck at home and wanting a distraction. Perhaps we have a common hobby? Or can you teach me something new? Challenge me in a gentle way? Tell me the best joke I’ve ever heard? Give me new snack ideas?
I’m outgoing, sarcastic as hell, and have a 6th grader. Hobbies include: trying not to mess up my kid too bad, hiking, paddle boarding, volleyball, camping, new experiences, and never missing an opportunity for a that’s what she said joke. Classic PNW vibes.