Prime Gaming – November 2023

Well, this crept up on me like your uncle’s questionable opinions on the gays at Thanksgiving, let’s cover some Prime Gaming, shall we? As always, if you are so inclined, there is a whole host of “in-game content” cosmetics and in-game boosts you can pick up for things like COD: Mobile, Destiny 2, Apex Legends, F1 23, Overwatch 2, Diablo IV, Hearthstone, and countless other guff like Fallout 76. If you are quick, you can still pick up last month’s additional game, Doom 3 via GOG.

Speaking of id Software (and Avalanche Studios), we’ll start with one of the highlights available from the 2nd of November by linking your Epic Games Store account: Rage 2: Deluxe Edition. Ok, this is a highlight in the sense it is that magenta-colored “wackiness” that is common in the wider gaming sphere rather than a quality game. Rage 2 is just more Rage followed by petering off and talking about something much more interesting, like a beige wall. Your typical “balls to the wall” high-paced triple-A action fare. They forgot that the great Mad Max of 2015 did all of this much better.

Don’t worry, it is still the same annoying tripe from Prime Gaming you are used to, hence why I need to now talk about Centipede: Recharged. A game older than 90% of you reading this is a reverse game of Snake, which is a reference that probably 40% of you will get because we’re all old. One of the many arcade revival titles being released right now, the 2021 Recharged edition is something you’ve previously gotten from Epic if you’ve been around here long enough. Available from the 9th through Epic, some of you might already have it and still not care to play it.

Available from the 10th via the Amazon Games App, you can play 2020 puzzle platformer, Evan’s Remains. Playing as Dysis, you go looking for a boy genius named Evan, who has disappeared many years prior. With an in-game anime art style, it is often times colorful and generally favored with a short runtime of only a couple of hours. If you’ve liked Gris or Planet of Lana, chances are that you’ll enjoy Evan’s Remains.

Something I swear I’ve covered in a Wholesome Games Direct before is up next, Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery. Coming to the Amazon Games App on the 16th, it is one of the highlights as Silver Lining Studio’s 2021 story-rich puzzle title has you painting lovely pictures in a gorgeous art style overall, as well as solving puzzles. There isn’t much to say, as Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery is very short. However, it is one of those indie titles that is doing something that’s actually quite wholesome.

One thing that isn’t so wholesome is the Star Wars fan base, especially when you tell them that you haven’t played what else is on offer from the 16th: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The 2003 RPG is often held up as BioWare’s greatest achievement, though mostly by people who wear Jar Jar Binks underwear (Me so tight!) I wouldn’t take a fandom’s word for it at face value. It is generally liked, even by a fandom that hates the thing they supposedly like. It might be worth trying to get running on Windows 11, somehow.

Onto the 22nd and available from the Amazon Games App, The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos. Yes, after trying to get a review done with that name, I think I’ve mastered filling out a word count while still trying to talk about it: Turn-based tactics in a fantasy setting and based on a French comic. Yes, unless you are up on your latest issue of Le donjon de Naheulbeuk, I’m afraid the tie-in aspect will fly over your head, hence why the party (and key art) features Boobarella, a titanically chested blonde that plays dumb.

Following on from that on the 23rd and once again returning to the dust bin of stuff you haven’t played on Epic, Black Widow: Recharged. Not as old as its many-legged counterpart, but more tripe from the Atari retro revival where the name Recharged is an understatement of sorts. Because some of you are too young to know what a Nokia 3310 is, arcades were these things that predated microtransactions where every life costs money. Fail a level? Give us money! Now you can just buy it for $10 and that’s it, infinite lives, unless the psychos at Atari now get ideas.

Next up on the 30th is an odd one as Orten Was the Case hasn’t been released yet and I don’t believe it has a release date yet either. Available through the Amazon Games App, this very “grotesque” European art-style and almost Ideal-like with its use of drugs and dark comedy elements is intriguing. Developed by Oskar Thuresson, who was the lead animator for It Takes Two, senior animator for A Way Out, and an animator for Payday 2, I’m interested but confused by this puzzle adventure title.

There has been a bit of a theme, and I just hope it isn’t something that sticks around for long, as you’ve got one more available through Epic on the 30th. Next is a Rogue-like action shooter that is now in a 16:9 ratio like all respectable games, SneakyBox’s Caverns of Mars: Recharged. If you too want to find out where in the living Christ we found Elon Musk so we can put him back, you can as you reach the depths of Mars in the final title available this month.