The last Controllers & Coffee post I wrote was in 2023 when I was heavily invested in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. I will say, I have been playing fewer video games than usual. Being stuck on Jedi: Survivor for a bit has put me in a rut. With this month being my annual Star Wars month, I think finishing Jedi: Survivor will help me get back into playing video games regularly. I wanted to share a gaming update as to what I have been playing and enjoying recently.

Consoles

For consoles, I’m currently playing three games at once. The first is obviously Jedi: Survivor. I started Jedi: Survivor in January and here I am still playing the game. I go through spurts where I play a lot and then a month goes by where I don’t play at all. This is similar to when I first played Jedi: Fallen Order, so it’s not surprising that I’m following a similar pattern here. Besides Jedi: Survivor, I’m also playing through LEGO Star Wars. I won’t touch on this too much since I already shared this in my May 4th post.

The third game that I’m playing is Bayonetta 3. Since watching Critical Role, I have been paying more attention to voice acting whether that be in games or shows. Bayonetta 3 features Anna Brisbin aka. Brizzy Voices is a character in the game. I have been following Brizzy Voices for several years now and I’m happy to see her get more roles in video games. I will say that I exclusively bought Bayonetta 3 because of her as I never played the other Bayonetta games. I am enjoying it so far and I hope to finish the game by the end of the year.

PC

I haven’t played a PC game in a bit. I have quite a few games in my library. They include a few of the Nancy Drew titles, Arcade Spirits, and Zodiacats. Since it’s on my mind, I’m going to install Zodiacats and a Nancy Drew game, so they are on my laptop for when I have the time to do a little PC gaming.

As a side note, my laptop might be on the fritz. My laptop is from 2016 which is already eight years ago. From a technology standpoint, my husband tells me this is old. I tend to use my devices until they completely shut off on me. When my laptop eventually needs to be replaced, I plan on buying a gaming laptop. While I would love to have the time to build my own computer, I don’t have the space to put it anywhere, so a gaming laptop would make the most sense.

Board Games

I haven’t played any new board games recently. Most of the games in my collection have been opened and I have played through them at least once which is pretty good for me. I did receive Forbidden Jungle as a Christmas gift last year and it remains unopened on my shelf. I would love to play Queen by Midnight again along with playing another scenario from Vagrant Song.

TTRPGs

I’m still playing in our Dungeons & Dragons campaign every Monday. I should write more about what’s happening in our sessions. My character, Vesper Henshawe, she has been through a lot. Her back story has been revealed to some of the other characters and she’s even involved in a romance with one of the NPCs (non-playable characters). The romance came out of nowhere as this NPC wasn’t in the backstory I created for her, but it’s been interesting to see how this relationship has developed.

While I would love to play in another TTRPG campaign, I don’t think I have the time to fully commit to a game. I avoid playing TTRPGs on the weekends since the weekends are when I’m the most social. If I were to play another TTPRG throughout the week, Thursday would probably be the day I’m most free since that’s usually my off day from the gym. I don’t want to be that player who cancels as it’s not fair to the other players at the table. I could see myself playing in one-shots in the future, but we shall see.

Miscellaneous

I don’t think I have anything to share under the Miscellaneous section. Most of the gaming falls under the previous sections in this post.

I want to carve out more time to play video games and on top of that, I’d like to start writing regular posts about the campaign I’m in on Monday. The gaming section on Bizarre Brunette is one of my favorite sections to write. There will be more video game reviews and TTRPG recaps in the posts to come.

Playing video games will always be a hobby of mine, but the way that I play video games has changed. I don’t have nearly as much time as I used to where I can sit down and play a game for hours. It’s an inevitable part of growing up, paying bills, and being a grown adult. When I reflect on all the hours I spent playing video games, Bioshock is a game that I reminisce about. I could talk about Bioshock for hours, but for me, it was one of the first games I played after taking a break from Halo 3. I recently found out that the creator of Bioshock is coming out with a new game called Judas which will take place in space. I know nothing about this game, but I’m here for it when pre-orders are open.

Judas is a first-person shooter that takes place on a crumbling spaceship. Making alliances and being on the offensive is the only hope to survive. I don’t have permission to share the screenshots for the game, but in scrolling through them, there’s definitely some Bioshock inspiration to them. It appears that the main character will have powers as one of the screenshots features someone charging blue lightning to shock an enemy. Speaking of enemies, they all have this mechanical and robotic look. In one screenshot, a robotic chef is attacking the player character. Their face is painted in this horrific smile that would appear in my nightmares. I do think that Judas has more of an animated tone than Bioshock based on the screenshots that I’m reviewing.

There isn’t much else that’s been released about Judas. If Judas is a carbon copy of Bioshock or it’s a “Bioshock 2.0″, I wouldn’t care. I’d still love the chance to play the game. I don’t normally pre-order video games, but I would make an exception for Judas.

There has been a lot of exciting news released regarding Critical Role and Darrington Press‘s TTRPG that they have been developing called Daggerheart. Critical Role released several videos discussing the Daggerheart open beta along with the rules of the game. Critical Role did film a one-shot with the Daggerheart system which I was able to carve time to watch. Without knowing much about Daggerheart before the videos were released, I wanted to share some things I noticed while digging into all the Daggerheart content.

As a side note, Daggerheart is in their open beta which means that the game is currently being playtested by real players and gamers. This means the rules can change once the open beta period is completed. The game is set to be released in 2025 according to Daggerheart’s FAQ page.

Before reviewing Daggerheart in-depth, I wanted to share a bit of background if you have no idea what I’m talking about. Since Critical Role first aired, each of their three campaigns utilizes Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition rules. Ever since the OGL License controversy, there’s been a lot of discussion over the future of Dungeons & Dragons since many fans disagree with how Wizards of the Coast has been handling the situation. This directly impacts Critical Role since they have worked with Wizards. There have been rumors that Critical Role is making Daggerheart so they can move away from Wizards as a company. I’m not sure how true that is since Critical Role hasn’t commented on this directly, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this was the reason behind creating Daggerheart.

I haven’t played the Daggerheart open beta and I don’t know if I will have time, but I wanted to share my first thoughts from what I have seen. Daggerheart is a D12 system meaning that instead of using a 20-sided die to roll in Dungeons & Dragons, Daggerheart will use a 12-sided die instead. Players will have two 12-sided dice to be aware of. One of the die will be a Hope die and the other will represent Fear. Players will reveal to the DM what they roll while noting which die they rolled the highest on either Hope or Fear. I’m intrigued by this Hope vs. Fear concept. I don’t use my d12s often when I play Dungeons & Dragons, so I think it will be a nice change from other TTRPGs I play.

Another interesting concept in Daggerheart is character creation. Players will have cards that they will pick from which highlight their powers and abilities. I have read critiques of this, but I actually think this is neat. It feels like a mixture of playing a TTRPG and a board game. I like having everything laid out in front of me versus trying to flip through the rule book to find what I’m looking for. Another thing that I’m looking forward to is all of the choices. Daggerheart has several class and race options which means there’s a lot of customization during the character creation process. I’m partial to the Faun or the Fungril. The Fungril are a mushroom species and I think that would be something I would enjoy roleplaying.

From everything I have watched thus far, the combat in Daggerheart is something that I’m skeptical about. For combat, there isn’t a player order like there is in Dungeons & Dragons. Instead, players pick and decide who gets to go first. When a player rolls and their roll is higher on their Fear die versus their Hope die, the DM gets to take their turn. I personally like having an idea as to who plays next. For example, if I’m last in the initiative order, it helps me write down essential notes from the session because I know I’m going last. The idea that there’s no order to combat in Daggerheart, it feels like it will be unorganized and chaotic. The other thing that I feel nervous about is what if a DM or a player is rolling extremely well. If the DM rolls well and gets to take many turns in a row in combat, players could feel defeated. If the reverse is true where players are rolling well, DMs might have to think more on the fly to make combat encounters challenging. If there was a rule where it stated that players or the DM can’t have more than three turns in a row, that might quell my skepticism. I could be completely overthinking Daggerheart’s combat, so maybe this isn’t an issue. I am curious to see if Daggerheart’s combat will be modified once the open beta is complete.

I think Daggerheart as a system seems intriguing and I would be open to playing a one-shot. I don’t think I will have time to play in the open beta, but if anyone is curious and wants to try out Daggerheart, the open beta can be accessed through Daggerheart’s website.

While at Gen Con last year, I was one of the lucky few who purchased Queen by Midnight at Darrington Press’s booth. I think what drew me to the game originally was the concept and the art of each of the princesses competing for the chance to be a queen. A few weekends ago, I finally played Queen by Midnight and I’m so glad I own a copy of the game. Queen by Midnight is a solid, deck-building game with a few interesting rules that make it stand out.

Queen by Midnight is a game where players play as princesses who fight each other to the death to become the Queen by Midnight. This is a deck-building game meaning that each princess has their own deck of cards they play out of. Throughout the rounds, princesses can purchase cards from the market to add to their deck which helps make their decks more powerful as the rounds progress. The game ends when one princess is left standing or when the clock hits midnight.

For my first play-through, I picked Rosaline, The Oneiromancer. Rosaline’s strategy is to recruit resources by going into trances. If she completes her trance, she receives rewards, but if she goes into a trance, she can’t play cards to protect herself if she’s targeted by other players. I liked being able to control when Rosaline could trance at what time and the rewards from completing a trance. There were quite a few different princesses to pick from which helped in increasing the likelihood that I would replay Queen by Midnight. It will take a few games before I figure out each princess’s overall strategy to win.

I liked the game design and it was clear that Darrington Press thought a lot about how this game could come together. The clock was stunning! There’s a clock that keeps the time between rounds and it’s a cardboard cut-out that needs to be put together. At first, it was a little finicky to put the pieces in place, but once the clock was built, the game box had a devoted spot for the clock, so you didn’t have to break down the pieces every single time. This is such a subtle feature, but when a game has components that don’t fit into the box well, it’s a little annoying.

In most board games, once your character dies, you’re out of the game. Queen by Midnight does things a little differently. At a certain point in the game, each princess picks a card that represents which princess they devote themselves to in case they lose their health. You can still win the game even if you’re dead as long as the princess you devoted yourself to wins the game. I thought that this worked out well for players because it made the game a lot more engaging.

Queen by Midnight was one of the best deck-building games that I have played. The game design was gorgeous, the rules had a few twists to them and I think our gaming group had fun learning how to play this game together. I would love to see more expansions whether that be more princesses to play or cards to add to the market deck. I can see this game becoming a staple in my board game collection. I’d rate Queen by Midnight 5/5.

Nancy Drew: Sea of Darkness takes place in Iceland which I thought was neat since I went to Iceland last year. I don’t think I have had this experience yet where I play a Nancy Drew game and I have actually visited the place that Nancy visits. I feel a bit biased when it comes to writing an honest review for Nancy Drew: Sea of Darkness because I loved this game, but I’m wondering if it’s partially because Iceland is the setting for this installment in the Nancy Drew PC game franchise. Nancy Drew: Sea of Darkness is definitely one of my favorite games and I think the mystery itself was intriguing.

Nancy is called to Iceland to investigate the disappearance of Captain Magnus Kiljansson who is leading the efforts to historically preserve a famous ship called the Heerlijkheid. There are rumors that there is buried treasure somewhere in the glaciers and that Captain Magnus not only found the treasure but escaped with it. Nancy isn’t fully convinced and she sets off to investigate whether Captain Magnus disappeared on his own free will or if something more sinister happened to him.

The first thing I noticed while playing Nancy Drew: Sea of Darkness was how pretty the game is. In the above screenshot, there’s an aura of darkness in the town that Nancy is wandering around in. I think the darkness adds a certain level of uncertainty which I think makes the Nancy Drew games more enjoyable. I liked how Nancy could also board the ship besides walking around the small town. I thought there was a lot to see and unlock as the game unfolded. I ended up playing this game during Superbowl weekend which was perfect considering the wintery setting of the game.

One thing that’s worth noting is this Nancy Drew game is puzzle-heavy. Every locked box has some sort of contraption that Nancy has to solve for. There are several things that Nancy has to collect which are found in many of the locations Nancy can explore. I found most of these puzzles to be fair, meaning that the solutions weren’t frustrating and could easily be obtained by reading all the material Nancy collects. There’s nothing more aggravating than trying to solve a puzzle and it feels like there’s no way to interpret the solution unless you use a walkthrough. I didn’t think this game fell into that at all.

Nancy Drew: Sea of Darkness was a memorable and notable adventure. I liked how Iceland was the backdrop to the game and I thought this game was well-balanced between being challenging, but also satisfying when a solution to a puzzle was achieved. I’d rate Nancy Drew: Sea of Darkness five stars as I think this would be one of the first Nancy Drew games I’d recommend to someone new to the franchise.

I haven’t talked much about the Dungeons & Dragons campaign that I play in on Mondays. It’s not that I haven’t wanted to because there has been so much that has happened since we started. I wanted to take the time to get to know my character and find a balance in roleplaying as her. In the meantime, I asked Bad Wolf Adventure Studios to commission art based on my character. I did this with Levinia from Curse of Strahd, so it’s no surprise that I would do this with my new character. I am so excited to introduce to you; Vesper Henshawe, my Human Sorcerer.

I wanted to give a little bit more of a description of Vesper. Vesper Henshawe is a general. Three of the player characters are underneath her hierarchy. Vesper is a student at the Academy where she has been trained as a battle mage. She has graduated from the Academy and upon graduation, she received a Ring of Spell Storing. She is looking to progress through her professional career as a military strategist. From a personality standpoint, Vesper is a hard person to get to know. She can be abrasive and difficult to work with. Her personality comes from the backstory that I built for her. I’m not going to reveal all of that yet because some of it I have kept secret from the other players, so I want to keep that secrecy now.

Roleplaying as Vesper has been entertaining. When I originally played her, I made her purposefully abrasive. She had an attitude and didn’t share much about herself with others. As the events have unfolded in our campaign, she has started to open up to the other players. One of our original players was killed by a hobgoblin which I think shook Vesper mentally. She is realizing that the more closed off she is, it may not gain her allies in the harsh world that she lives in.

Bad Wolf did such an amazing job with designing Vesper. I am obsessed with this picture as I think it captures Vesper’s personality and also the experiences she’s had throughout the campaign. I hope to write more campaign recap sessions here because there has been so much going on that our party has had to work through.

When I purchased all my new Steam games, I knew I wanted to play the Nancy Drew games first. One of my long-term goals is to play every single Nancy Drew PC game and I’m on my way there. Out of the five Nancy Drew games I purchased, I decided to play Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy first. Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy had an intriguing plot, and while I didn’t like this game as much as the others I played previously, this might be a good game for those who are new to the Nancy Drew PC games.

In Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy, this game focuses on Nancy’s back story and what happened to her mom. Nancy receives a letter regarding her mother’s car accident. It’s made clear to Nancy that her mom was a government agent and she was investigating a potential terrorist attack in Scotland. The terrorist group responsible went dark and Nancy’s mother died shortly after that. Nancy flies to Scotland to finally figure out what happened to her mother all those years ago.

Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy has one of the best stories out of all the games. It’s hard to beat a game that goes back into Nancy’s personal history. I liked the setting of this game. Set in Scotland, Nancy finds herself in and out of a train station, jetting off to various locations including a safe house with access to spy gear. From a story perspective, I think that was easily the best part about this game in particular.

That said, I think Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy was a bit underwhelming. The main reveal of who was responsible wasn’t exciting. This is a big deal, this is finding out who was involved in Nancy’s mom’s death, but I felt like I didn’t get any real answers. Why was this person involved in terrorist activity? What did Nancy’s mom know that made her a liability? These may have been revealed and I wasn’t paying attention, but I felt there was more that could have been done to make this more satisfying.

Another thing with this game, I felt the puzzles were convoluted. There was one puzzle that involved unlocking the phone of a suspect that Nancy was looking into. It involved finding a flag of a particular region. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out the clue and after getting some help from a walkthrough, I realized that the book I needed was at another suspect’s house which I missed. If that wasn’t enough, this puzzle was timed since Nancy was breaking into the hotel room. I don’t like timed puzzles to begin with as I prefer to take my time figuring out the solution. It feels more satisfying when I can figure it out myself than trying to race against time before Nancy is caught.

Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy is essential to play since it covers Nancy’s backstory. I wish that this game was more satisfying, I think it ended up being a bit of a letdown. That said, I already have the next Nancy Drew game installed on my computer and can’t wait to play it. I would rate Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy three stars. It was fun and I liked the game, but it wasn’t my favorite.

Is there any better way to kick off a new year than to buy new video games? I don’t think there is. I haven’t purchased any new games on Steam in a long time. I saw the Winter Sale was still going on, so now is the time to get stocked up to kick off 2024 with a bang. I wanted to share all the new games I bought on Steam because my haul is actually pretty massive.

All the Nancy Drew!

I bought five new Nancy Drew games. They are: Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy, Nancy Drew: Legend of the Crystal Skull, Nancy Drew: Midnight in Salem, Nancy Drew: Sea of Darkness, and, Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy. I don’t know what I will do with myself if I ever get to the point where I have played every single Nancy Drew game. I love the Nancy Drew PC games as I think they are a fun challenge. It’s become a routine where I sit upstairs in our loft, break out the note pad and a pen, and load up the newest Nancy Drew game. I think this should keep me busy for a bit.

Arcade Spirits

Arcade Spirits is a visual novel game taking place in the 1980s. As the player, you start your job at the Funplex game arcade. Who will you meet throughout your day at the arcade? I liked the art in this game and this feels like a chill game to play during the week.

Beacon Pines

Beacon Pines is an adventure game that’s set in a mystery book. This is definitely up my alley. I’ll be curious to see how this runs on PC. I see that it is on the Switch as well. I don’t have a well established game set up as I play solely on my laptop. I could see myself liking this game then buying it on the Switch depending on how it runs on my laptop.

Bear & Breakfast

Bear & Breakfast is a simulation game in which players play as a Bear as they open a Bed and Breakfast. I was envisioning this to be a Diner Dash except more campground themed. If that’s the case, I will love this game.

Zodiacats

Zodiacats is a cat puzzle jigsaw game where players solve puzzles to unlock the zodiac wheel. This should be no surprise that I bought another cat themed video game.

With the Steam haul, I picked up nine games in total. I believe every game was discounted in some amount. I actually made a big dent in my Steam wishlist which I felt was a long time coming. I’m excited to take some time and play through some of these new games. I’m sure there will be a lot of video game reviews upcoming.