Lines Infinite, released in 2017 on Steam (Linux, Windows and mac), is a puzzle game available at a ridiculously low price (€0.99, and often discounted at €0.29 according to steamdb).

It comes with a hundred numberlink puzzles, which are logic puzzles involving connecting numbers on a grid (see Wikipedia), and a quickly-annoying music and sound effects, which I ended up muting after 20 minutes of play time.

The UI is good, because there’s no useless stuff: you boot the game, and you can immediately start playing it - there’s no main menu, no “save” to load. You pick the level you want to play, and there you go. But that’s about it, as you’ll quickly be frustrated by the inability to “redraw” or “continue” a line without having to erase it.

Moreover, this game is plagued by its (non-existent) difficulty curve: early-game levels felt somehow harder than mid-game ones, whereas you sometimes encounter extremely easy levels seemingly out of nowhere. Balancing the difficulty in puzzle games is known to be a tricky matter, but said absence of a difficulty curve annihilates all sense of progress you might get, aside from the Steam achievements.

Finally, a tutorial could help onboard players that do not know how numberlink puzzles work. I don’t say it’s necessary, but it might have helped improve my opinion about this game.

To put things in a nutshell: Lines Infinite remains a decent puzzle game, thanks to its price and the average 3 hours of playtime you can expect from it (according to HowLongToBeat).

Never before did I crave to read every bit of text a mobile game had to offer. And I had a good reason to do so: once I’d have left, all I couldn’t explore was lost forever.

Beyond the Chiron Gate is the newest (released in 2022) entry in interactive fiction games by John Ayliff, a solo indie game developer whose other works might already be familiar to you if you read previous reviews on this very website (see Eloquence’s review of Seedship). And this game is the first one of Ayliff’s to be charged, at a (hefty) $10 price tag.

Overall, the feeling of wonder that gets you through text and the beautiful soundtrack is the main fuel of this game. It’s what kept me going until I reached the ending (which there seems to be many of!). Let me explain the setting: a probe discovered a weird thing at asteroid 2060 Chiron. Turns out, it’s a Gate to unknown reaches of space. And you get to manage a spaceship, a crew, and discover new technologies in your quest to uncover the secrets of this awesome - yet dangerous - mean of transportation, and, if you are good enough at this role, to harness it for the betterment of mankind!

Unless you’re playing like a douchebag and don’t mind getting your crew members dying over and over again, the average play time is about 2 hours. It’s a tad long to achieve in a single sitting, but this is what I recommend you do, as you will be fully “immersed” in the setting.

The game has you managing a few resources, none of them being particularly difficult to get or keep, yet you will sometimes feel like you’ll never have enough. And trust me, you won’t. The same applies for your crew members : they can get injured, or even die, and in the former case they’ll need some time to recover before being “recruitable” again for your crew. And you’ll regret not having a xenobiologist available when you are desperately craving those forsaken xeno research points!

To put things in a nutshell: Beyond the Chiron Gate is fun, especially when you want to relax in the couch or the bed with your phone. And it’s definitely a huge step up from Ayliff’s previous catalog. However, given its $10 price tag, it suffers from the repetitiveness of some of the events that occur, sometimes making the game feel “shallow” while it often demonstrates otherwise.

Yet Ayliff’s been making these Sci-Fi interactive fiction games for quite a while now, and all of them were available for free. Thus, I actually don’t mind paying $10 for Beyond the Chiron Gate. I had a great time playing it, and will certainly come back to it if the urge to explore the unexplored hits me again.

Stay safe, commander. No one knows what lies behind the Gate.

Behind the Frame, released in 2021, is the first game from Taiwanese indie developer Silver Lining Studio. You play as a young artist named Amber, who is poised to complete her final painting for a gallery submission.

I was grateful that no artistic skill is required of the player. Instead, you simply click and drag (or touch) areas of the screen to paint parts of the canvas in the required color. When you are not painting, you explore Amber’s quaint apartment, make breakfast, and solve seemingly inconsequential puzzles.

Behind the Frame’s visual style draws heavy inspiration from the movies of Studio Ghibli. One scene pays visual homage to Miyazaki’s “The Wind Rises”. (Credit: Studio Ghibli / Silver Lining Studios. Fair use.)

As the story advances, it becomes clear that all is not as it seems. Amber is persistently disoriented, her life seems to be circumscribed by the walls of her apartment, and a mysterious old painter across the street comes into play.

The game’s runtime is a little over two hours, which includes a secondary story that unlocks after your first playthrough. The game grabs your attention with its gorgeous art style, which draws obvious inspiration from Studio Ghibli; interactive sequences are interspersed with full-screen cut scenes.

Behind the Frame’s ambience is underscored by a soundtrack that skillfully blends cello, piano, guitar and the Flügelhorn, and which perfectly suits the cozy but slightly forlorn vibes of the game.

Given its short runtime, the less you read about the story going in, the better. Suffice it to say that the story is not entirely straightforward, and like a painting, will likely resonate quite differently for different players.

I found some of the puzzle mechanics a bit tedious, and while I enjoyed the story, it did not move me as much as the short and poignant Florence or the brilliant What Remains of Edith Finch.

Don’t expect a masterpiece, but if you’re looking for a cozy game with gorgeous art and music and a small mystery to unravel, Behind the Frame is a fine choice. I played it on the Steam Deck without issues, and would strongly recommend playing with a mouse or touchscreen, not a controller.

Die Inschrift am zweiten Haupttor der Festung VII in Posen macht gleich mehr als deutlich, worum es bei diesem Museum geht. In Frakturschrift steht in großen, schwarzen Lettern auf Beton “Konzentrationslager-Posen”.

Eingangstor im Fort VII mit der Inschrift Konzentrationslager Posen (Eigenes Werk. Lizenz: CC-BY-SA.) In den vielen zugänglichen Räumen, die zu einem sehr großen Teil als Hafträume dienten, wird durch Berichte von Augenzeugen auf die Greuel, die diese inhaftierten Personen erleben mussten aufmerksam gemacht. Die mehrsprachigen Texte in Verbindung mit den engen und duster gehaltenen Räumen geben den Eindruck wieder, den das Fort als Haftlager auf die Häftlinge gemacht haben muss.

Die weitgehend erhaltenen Aussenanlagen geben den Stand als Fort der Stadtverteidigung wieder und nur selten wird ein Bezug zur Zeit der Besetzung durch die Nationalsozialisten hergestellt. Ausserhalb des Forts ist mittlerweile die Vegetation so weit fortgeschritten, das ein Blick auf die damals zu verteidigenden Gebiete nicht mehr möglich ist.

Das Museum hat bei mir einen tiefen Eindruck hinterlassen und sollte, obwohl es etwas abseits des Stadtzentrums gelegen ist, unbedingt besucht werden.

Das Fort ist von Dienstag bis Samstag von 9:00 bis 16:00 und Sonntags von 10:00 bis 16:00 geöffnet. Der Eintritt ist frei.

The Vegan Breakfast

I had dinner in the city centre branch of the StäV a few days ago and it was okay. Then I found it at the airport when I was looking for breakfast. They have a vegan breakfast that’s super tasty, freshly made, and, for an airport anyway, keenly priced. I liked it a lot. Probably one of the best vegan airport breakfasts I had so far.
They also have other clearly labeled vegan dishes.

The Fully Vegan Breakfast

If you’re in Stockholm and craving a good old fry up, Greasy Spoon’s version hits the spot and contains all the necessities: The right baked beans, a good sausage, nice tofu scramble, fresh mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, and a few slices of good bread. They even have brown sauce, the only correct condiment for a good fry-up, though they call it by its poncy name, HP sauce.
The place is laid back enough, service is good, and the toilets are clean. What else do you want? Gets busy, so use the digital wait-list function on their website.

Wenn im Untertitel des Restaurants “innovativ” steht erwarte ich mehr als nur den Standard, den es gefühlt überall gibt. Aber diese Erwartung ist hier zu hoch angesetzt. Außer das die Grillteller  im griechischen Alphabet aufgelistet werden konnte ich keine weitere Innovation erkennen. Schade, denn dieses Restaurant, so wurde mir berichtet, gehörte einmal zu den nachgefragtesten in der ganzen Stadt. Jetzt ist es für mich eines von vielen. Der Service wirkt nicht eingespielt und das Ambiente hat keinen Wiedererkennungswert. Wer allerdings auf solide griechische Speisen setzt ist hier richtig und braucht kein besonderes Ambiente. Von der Vorspeise bis zum Dessert ist alles durchweg lecker und die Portionen sind mehr als ausreichend. Eine Reservierung ist unbedingt zu empfehlen.

Twin Mirror from French video game developer Don’t Nod (Life is Strange) is set in Basswood, West Virginia, a fictional coal town at the brink of economic ruin. You play as Sam Higgs, an investigative reporter.

As a writer for the Basswood Jungle, you exposed unsafe labor practices at the local mine. Because this is a work of fiction, this led to the mine being shut down. Many of the locals blamed you for the resulting job losses. Add a failed relationship to the mix, and you had every reason to leave Basswood in the past.

The only reason you’re back in town is because of the death of your friend and former colleague, Nick. The official cause of death is a car accident, but Nick’s young daughter Joan suspects foul play and implores you to investigate. This is where the game presents you with your first choice: Do you promise Joan that you will look into it?

Like Don’t Nod’s other narrative adventure games, Twin Mirror is played from a third-person camera perspective. The game places you in various settings, many of which you can explore at your leisure before performing the required actions to advance to the next scene. In most cases, that involves solving simple puzzles. There are a couple of action and exploration sequences, but they require no significant player skill.

Long sequences of the game take place in Sam’s powerful imagination (Credit: Don’t Nod. Fair use.)

A rich inner life

Sam has an extraordinary mind. By focusing on a scene, he is able to rapidly piece together disparate clues into a coherent narrative. During these moments, the player is placed in Sam’s “mind palace”, a fragmented reflection of the real world. For example, Sam can imagine multiple versions of Nick’s car accident, until all the clues fit perfectly.

Sam’s inner life comes at a cost to those around him. Throughout the game, you must choose whether to steer Sam towards facts, or towards the people in his life. Central among them are Sam’s ex-girlfriend Anna, and Nick’s daughter Joan.

Twin Mirror is over in about 6 hours, making it one of Don’t Nod’s shortest titles. This isn’t enough time to get to know any of the characters except for Sam, whom some players may find difficult to relate to due to his social and emotional difficulties.

The game does offer the player meaningful choices, which can result in one of five endings. I was satisfied with the ending I received, and felt that it was consistent with my choices. As for the plot, let’s just say that no “mind palace” is required to solve the mysteries of what’s going on in Basswood.

The Verdict

Visually, the game is appealing, but it only offers a couple of genuinely interesting locales. Instead of exploring a vibrant world as in Life is Strange, you spend a lot of the game’s short runtime in Sam’s head.

I would still give the game a weak recommendation if you do like narrative adventure games. However, it is overpriced at its regular price of $30. It frequently plummets into the $5 range, and for fans of the genre, it’s worth picking up at that price.

Outstanding vegan Bavarian food. Everything we had was perfectly executed and tasted delicious. It’s been a long time I enjoyed a restaurant as much as Bodhi.
We had the Buffalo Wings to start with, then the Bodhi Pfanderl and the Enten Braten. We finished with the Mousse au Chocolat. The latter was just divine.
The portions are a good size, service is swift and friendly. There’s really no reason not to go here frequently. It’s probably a good idea to book in advance. The joint was packed when we arrived and without a booking we would have had to wait.

Vegan Buffalo Wings

Bodhi Pfanderl

Possibly the biggest pizza I’ve ever received in a restaurant! Easily enough to share for two people. For less than 14 EUR also very keenly priced, particularly given the city-center location of this place.
The outlet is large and it gets very busy - I’d definitely recommend making a reservation if you’re looking to go for dinner here.
The service was okay given how busy it was when we dined. I enjoyed the pizza and would totally come here again for another one. My friend had a vegan pasta dish, which was also a decent portion and tasted nice.
All in all a good place to dine in the centre of town and at very fair prices - the pizza, pasta, a small water, a glass of wine, and a beer came to less than 40 EUR.

Yikes! Probably the biggest pizza I’ve ever received in a restaurant.