Games I Played in February 2026

The Acid Queens of the Moon

itch

I was completely off of social media for a while, and then I logged onto Bluesky and saw both positive things and things that reminded me why I took a break. Anywaysss, then I opened the first post on my rss feed backlog, one of Virtual Moose's indie game roundups, saw the line "Do you like Yuri? Well a whole game jam for it just wrapped up on Itch," saw this title and figured the extreme opposite of bluesky drama sounded amazing. I was right.

Does software with very little user interaction count as a game? We're talking about the Acid Queens of the Moon, and you wanna play the cop here? Away with you.

It's a very comforting experience. Two people mad at life and finding a way to escape it is always a treat, especially when it's incredibly queer. It brings me back to nights during college, even if those nights mostly looked very different than what's presented here. The cheese sticks bit is consistent, though.

I have a hard time talking about short narratives other than nodding my head and saying "I dug the vibes." I do recommend giving it a shot if you have some time to yourself and are craving a fictional queer drug trip. And if you want to be convinced to buy more cheese sticks than you will eat.

Baldur's Gate 3

Official Site

I made a post in June where I mentioned my BG3 playthrough was nearly a year old. ... Well anyways I finally finished the game!

This is a game that needs little introduction, it received a lot of praise in 2023 for good reason. It's a relatively accessible 5e adventure with a very dense and engaging setting. And while 5e is far from a perfect system (I used Shadowheart and Wyll in my main party, I'm aware of the disadvantages of this game's action economy), it's one I personally enjoy. "Play another game" crowd, I'm in a Pathfinder campaign right now, don't worry. This game did sit in a weird spot where it was one of the things I'd do if I craved a TTRPG outside of the campaigns I was in, but actually playing it did make me want to play more real campaigns. A video game, especially in single-player, can only do so much for the exploration and social elements of these kinds of games. I didn't mind BG3's approach to these areas, but since the campaigns I play have also focused more on combat, the feeling of wanting to play something just a little different would sometimes crop up and that's maybe one of the reasons I would sometimes take extended breaks from it.

Anyways, the game itself. I'll start with a few negatives but don't worry, I do like it. Some of the party members are far more developed than others (Again, used Shadowheart and Wyll, one of these two got way more attention from the game). None of the companion characters are completely sidelined, but there are certainly moments where it would feel like a specific party member's relevance was a bit forced, especially during some scenes in Act 3. And speaking of Act 3... I admire what they tried to do with its setting, but it does have a lot of the same energy as Act 1 just a lot more cramped now. I think if they were able to shift a little bit into Act 2 with a few changes, it maybe would have felt better, but I'm just speculating.

Of course, Act 2 was my favorite. The whole section feels so distinct, and all the moving parts feel connected while having their own room to breathe. And its main antagonist is probably my favorite of the bunch, partially because their connections to the other plot threads feels a lot more organic than what the antagonists of Act 3 have going on. The Towers of this Act do highlight two of my largest issues with BG3's combat though. Area-of-effect abilities feel a bit too core to the fights in this game, these spells are strong in 5e of course but there are definitely more than a few important encounters that feel like chokepoint control is the only thing that matters. And what makes this awkward is NPC Ally decision-making. This doesn't come up often, but it is very annoying to watch green unit number 57 walk into my own Hunger of Hadar, halving their health and making them miss their attack.

When I'm not playing traffic control for green units however, combat is a good time. While it's clear that the encounters are designed for a general player with no sense of what your party is coming in with (which, there's no expectation for that not to be the case), most of the time the fights are still fun. The game gets a lot of use out of verticality which can be hard to wrangle in real campaigns. And allowing your party members with immediate initiative scores act in any order around each other encourages minute-to-minute planning that I personally always enjoy. I wonder how obvious this paragraph makes it that I haven't played many CRPGs, but I think decisions like these are still fun even if they're more common that I thought. I enjoyed the creativity of a lot of these fights. Messing with a body I probably shouldn't and being swarmed by level 1 crows is hilarious, even moreso when they have no perception of Spirit Guardians.

The world design of the game is great. As suffocating as Act 3 feels from a higher perspective, they really did cram so many interesting set pieces into a world while still letting it feel alive. The small walks between each area in Act 1 are just long enough to sell the illusion and while I do like a road-trip vibe, being sure not to stretch out empty unless the player wants them to be feels like the right choice. I think the various party members tackle the scenario of a mindflayer invasion from a lot of different angles without feeling too bland. Are they the richest characters in gaming? I don't think so (and again, I think there were some clear favorites). But I wanted to see the stories of my main party to their conclusions and not just because I wanted checkmarks on my digital journal.

Baldur's Gate 3 is a game I can clearly see flaws in and makes me want to play TTRPG campaigns different from it and the ones I have previously. And yet, I still want to go back to it. Commit to a Dark Urge run, play in multiplayer more, see the things I missed and let the party members I didn't use shine. When even the layout of how I talk about games on this blog discourages replays (which for the record - I'll write about the same game multiple times if I want to), having such a strong desire to go back to a game so soon after taking so long to play it once says more than an analytical look could.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

N64 version available as part of NSO Expansion Pack

Really proving that anti-remake claim to be false, huh? Lately, I just have not been able to stop thinking about Ocarina of Time and that's only partly due to it being a popular choice for item randomizers. And so, I took out my copy of the 3DS remake (because it's the version I have so it was just easier this way) and started a new save. I've been playing this game for well over a decade and.... well.... I never beat a single temple as Adult Link. My memory tells me that it's because I was scared of the Moblins guarding the path to the Forest Temple when I was younger. If I ever made it to the entrance, I never completed the dungeon itself. The day I started this save I played through all through the first three dungeons and stopped with pulling the Master Sword. Oh yeah, there's that gaming motivation I was looking for last year.

Getting through that opening section so quickly was such a cool time. It's the part of the game I've played the most of course, but it was great to get a taste of so much of the world so quickly. Knowing how to grab a couple heart pieces before the game expects you to, and taking care to notice all the shortcuts dotted around really made the game feel alive in a way I didn't expect. Ocarina's map isn't actually that big, but they still took the time to make it all feel connected. I do wish it was more common in this series to not have the populations as segregated as they are to aid in that, but the side paths do their best to sell the illusion I suppose.

There are two things that stand out to me about the first half of the Adult Link section (Forest, Fire, and Water temples). First, I really like how non-linear this game can be. A lot of 3D Zelda games have a reputation for being linear. Ocarina of Time is known for having tricks to sidestep progression, but even without those there's a lot of room for player choice. The Fire Temple is closer to where you get the Hookshot than the Forest Temple, and while the dungeon map requires the bow, you can otherwise get through it just fine without heading back to Kokiri Forest. On the note of the map being the optional item, however, I do think this game's dungeons are a bit on the tedious side. Respawning enemies and reset puzzles make backtracking a chore, which mixes awfully with this pervasive idea that delicate movement belongs in 3D Zelda (though it's absolutely a skill issue on my part). I don't think the Water Temple is as "evil" as its reputation suggests, but locked doors at the end of long hallways and the final spike room just come off as antagonistic towards the player. Combined with drawn out fights like Volvagia and Morpha, and my thoughts after leaving some of these dungeons were "oh finally."

This somewhat sour note turned around for me in the endgame, however. An increasing inventory and more motivation to pickup heart pieces I so far missed had me spending even more time with that adventurous non-linearity I had been enjoying so far. It'd be fun to do an item randomizer of the original version, just to feel how much you can do out of order with a little bit of observation. Even outside of the debate of which temple is meant to be the last one you visit (It's the Spirit Temple, obviously), the presence of areas like the Gerudo Traning Grounds kept this sense of exploration on my mind even during times where I was focusing on story progress. And this is maintained even in the final dungeon, where trying to simply repeat narrative order throws an obstacle in your face that can be completely avoided if you let yourself explore other rooms.

When I kept thinking about Ocarina of Time before starting this playthrough, I kept feeling as if it was very similar to my platonic idea of an Action-Adventure game. And having now actually beaten it, I think that feeling was correct. It's story is simple and modular, but absolutely sells the idea of coming to grips with the world around you becoming more complicated as you grow older. And that feeds into an adventure amazingly, as you keep coming back to places you visited with more to do because of your own experiences both in and away from them. The world is built for you to discover it, but it still rarely feels like a "guided tour," even when you have a good understanding of the progression path. I know, "Ocarina of Time is a good game" is a take colder than the Arctic, but it's a cold take I'm happy to stand by.