#3 | Video Games - July Check In - 4 Minute Game Blog

Today is July 2nd, 2026 and that means the first half of the year is over and my anxiety about the 2nd half of it is officially here. Fortunately, there are video games and they still cost less than therapy and medication, despite Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and Steam's best efforts.

I have somehow made time to complete 14 games so far this year so its time to run them down listicle-style.

JANUARY

I only finished one game in my birthday month and it was The Knightling by Twirlbound. You play an aspiring knight and are tasked with exploring a reasonably sized open world in search of answers to the mystery of your missing mentor. You're equipped with your mentor's legendary talking shield & a variety a movement/platforming options. This game was a pleasant surprise for me. I expected this game to be sweet & cutesy, which it was. What I wasn't expecting was to get shield smacked right in my emotions. The Knightling punches above it's weight in puzzle design, platforming & story. I wasn't in love with the combat but it hardly made a difference as I didn't encounter anything too frustrating or difficult.

FEBRUARY

I finally played Jump Over The Age's Citizen Sleeper! And yes, I did kick my own ass for waiting so long. I can confidently say I have never play anything like it. The gameplay loop is you waking up every day & deciding how to spend your very limited energy & time. Do you work a shift to make money so you can buy medicine that will keep your loaner body from malfunctioning? Do you help your friend unravel a corporate conspiracy? Do you take a moment to have a meal? Who do you trust & who do you betray. This game's writing & branching storylines are incredible & make replaying it almost mandatory.

I'm a human being. I'm not made of stone. I'm not above playing a triple A, blockbuster 'Video Game' like Spider-Man 2, which I replayed in February. What can I say, rampaging through NYC as Venom is fun. Doing a boss fight as MJ with her symbiote blaster gun is fun. Having a boss fight against symbiote MJ is fun. Kicking Peter's perfectly round ass as Miles is fun.

Speaking of fun, Borderlands 3. My only prior experience with Borderlands was playing a portion of BL 3 with two friends on Game Pass once. During that session, one of us (not me) rage quit because someone (also not me) did something that interrupted a boss fight we were almost finished with. This time around, I played it alone & liked it a lot. I had an FPS itch and Borderlands 3 scratched it perfectly.

MARCH

If you like turn-based RPGs that are weird & interesting then look no further than Hermit & Pig by Heavy Lunch Studio. You play as a socially awkward hermit who spent his life avoiding people to protect his peace. He then is dragged into a psychedelic, mushroom fueled journey where he learns that being disconnected from community is actually a bad thing (?) as they work to fight back against a harmful, corporate entity. My two favorite things about this game are taking cringe damage from saying weird stuff & being able to disable the timed combat elements. If you, for some reason, can only play one game from this entire list then make it Hermit & Pig.

Back in 2021, a top-down, cyberpunk, co-op shooter called The Ascent came out & was received positively by everyone but me. I then went on a search for a game with similar vibes & found 2017's Ruiner by Reikon Games. It had everything The Ascent had except for co-op so I bought it & proceeded to not play it until March of this year after the sequel was announced. Turns out, I was missing out on a really fun game that had a bunch of weird, interesting characters & gorgeously grimy environments.

The next game on my list is Sheepy: A Short Adventure by MrSuicideSheep. It is rated as Overwhelmingly Positive on Steam with over 11k reviews but I will bet almost anything that you've never seen or heard of this FREE indie game. I don't blame you for not knowing about 2024's bravest sheep plushie. You were probably busy playing Dragon's Dogma 2 or Black Ops 6 or Animal Well or some ~~shit~~. I promise you, Sheepy will not let you down or overstay its welcome. I completed this awesome action platformer in 45 minutes & it was time well spent.

APRIL

Another game from 2024 that may have slipped under your radar is Avatar: Frontiers Of Pandora. I'm only kind of kidding. 2024 saw a lot of awesome game releases & I think this one got lost in the shuffle &/or written off as another typical Ubisoft open world game and it does fit that description but we shouldn't forget that Ubisoft used to be good at their formula & some of that ancient magic ended up in this humble Avatar game. The game looks great, runs well & tells a decent story. Also, the base game is half the price of most equivalent triple A title at $29.99.

Replaced by Sad Cat Studios is a game that sat on my wishlist for years until it finally came out in April of 2026. Unlike most of the games on my list, I bought & played Replaced IMMEDIATELY. I devoured this game's slick pixel art & crunchy combat over the course of about 3 days. The thing that surprised me was the themes of hope & humanity present in the story. You play an AI who accidently hijacks a person's body & learns the hard way that corporations are evil & we the people are all that we have. I loved it!

MAY

We all enjoy a little fantasy fulfillment now & then. Like playing a life sim to fulfill the fantasy of owning a home & cheating on your spouse with their best friend who also lives with you for some reason. Or maybe you were born to do interior design but forced to work a stupid office job to pay the bills. Well, that's where Hozy by Come On Studio comes in. Hozy took cleaning & decorating mechanics & streamlined them until they hit the "ooooh that's satisfying" zone. It was the perfect game to relax with on weeknights after I came from work.

In stark contrast to Hozy, this next game was so demanding that I could only play it on weekends because it required an amount of time & energy I simply could not muster after being at work all day. Its Crimson Desert, yall. Yes, the everything game. The only legit QUADRUPLE A game in my opinion. I told myself I wasn't going to buy more than one $70 game this year. Lucky for me, my partner bought it because I Inception-ed him with trailers & gameplay videos. I enjoyed the 99 hours I spent kicking absolute ass & building a settlement for me & the boys.

JUNE

Coffee Talk Tokyo by Toge Productions and Chorus Worldwide Games....... I just needed a moment because I ~~fucking~~ adore this series. The latest entry in this visual novel series did not disappoint. For the uninitiated, you run a coffee shop that is open late & serves a variety of humanoid fantasy creatures like pixies, kappas, nekomimis etc. Customers come in to spill their secrets over cups of coffee & tea. That's it. That's the game. Except, the writing is exceptional. These fake people have real problems, the world they live in is a mirror of our own. The game's writers are adept at pinpointing specific feelings & offering a wide range of viewpoints. I can't say enough good things about the Coffee Talk series so I'll leave you with this: Play this game.

There were A LOT of notable indie games in 2025. Silksong. Clair Obscure. Hades 2. Blue Prince. Even in such a crowded pool, Dispatch by AdHoc Studio was a true stand out. This is another game where I kicked my own ass for not playing it sooner. One of the running themes of the games I've finished this year is top notch writing/storytelling & this workplace comedy eclipses them all. I wish I had something original or insightful to say about Dispatch but this game got plenty of coverage when it launched. It deserves every accolade & award it received. It just a good ass game & literally everyone should play it at least once.

As of writing, the last game I played to completion was Moldwasher by Rubel Games. I finished it on June 24th. This one is another perfect weeknight relaxation game that sits in the coveted "ooooh that's satisfying" zone. You play as tiny piece of sentient nigiri who is on a mission to keep a human sized house from being overrun by mold. You have 7 mold fighting tools, a sick soundtrack & room you can decorate with toys & stickers after each job. I would highly recommend picking up Moldwasher AND it's soundtrack.

Hello dear reader. If you made it to the end of this blog then I'm guessing you appreciate games of the indie variety. If that is you, then my Bluesky account is the perfe-- wait... don't leave yet. My Bluesky account is the perfect place for you. I post about new & upcoming indie games most weekdays. I know your wishlist & backlog situation are probably out of control already but there is good news....... you ready...... The good news is that it can only get worse. Anyway, thanks for reading.