The Queue: Halloween O’Clock

I guess it’s time to start decorating for Halloween for real, which is just wild in so many ways, but I really need only the flimsiest of excuses to break out the pumpkins and the purple.

This is The Queue, our daily column where you as us questions and we answer while riding on a broomstick. It’s fine, I can use my phone as a wifi hot spot.

I have been sweating over the Gilnean top hat bird cage veil combo since it was initially added, so that.

I will say that I find it a little weird that we haven’t seen much of a turn toward classical garments, now that we’ve gone beyond the initial nearly pasted on armor. I’m not saying I want a ruff, but I’m surprised we don’t have more options for peasant blouses, or puffy slashed sleeves, or doublets, or french hoods. Likewise for a lot of clothing for the wealthy in the early modern period, I’m surprised we haven’t seen visible necklaces or collars in the necklace slot yet.

I used to, but it always wound up being a little weird when you don’t know who these people are in advance, and then you have the characters named after your friends trying to hook up with you. No thanks.

Plus, I’ve always found it tough to discuss with other fans when the characters are renamed to something else. I see it really frequently with Baldur’s Gate 3 and they act confused when you talk about Tav, Tav being the default name for the player character. Above any other character it definitely makes sense to rename the player character, but it also just adds a little extra layer of confusion to every interaction when you have to explain who Tav is.

You don’t have to call me out like this every time there’s a Steam Sale, gosh.

Thus far I’ve purchased Strange Antiquities, Squeakross, Abiotic Factor, House of Da Vinci, Monstrum, and Train Valley 2. Despite my current witchy feelings, I’m still waiting for a bit on Strange Antiquities, because I personally am literally still wearing shorts and blasting the AC.

I started in a bit on Squeakross, which is a very cute little game where you solve nonograms and that gives you furniture or clothing to decorate your little house or mouse friend. You can also do additional solves to get color variants. I find the gameplay loop fun and the extra stuff is adorable and engaging. The only real criticism I have is the same for almost every nonogram game, especially in the early small grid levels: this picture is really supposed to be that?

I also started Abiotic Factor, and it’s just as charmingly odd as it says on the tin. I’m a little concerned about how the resource generation is supposed to happen, but I think that’s something you’re supposed to discover just by playing.