Games and mixed feelings

 Having a backlog of games is less than ideal for a number of reasons, but one of the top reasons has to be that time marches on.  Sometimes, that just means that advancements in technology have rendered elements of any given game stale by the time you get around to playing it (assuming you ever do).  Sometimes, it's a bit darker than that.

In this case, I was looking for something to scratch my itch for exploration, and none of the current crop of Game Pass games was quite what I was looking for.  Looking at my backlog of XBox One games, next up in the queue was Grow Up, a little low-poly affair where you, as a humanoid but not-too-bright little robot, get to roam around a planet-scape, acquiring different abilities while you pursue your goals.  Importantly, you start with the ability to grab things with your hands, with independent controls for each hand, which allows you to climb... basically, whatever you can get your hands on.  Perfect for what I was looking for, I went ahead and installed it and fired it up.

Which is, of course, when I saw that the game was produced by Ubisoft.  Historically, I've generally liked Ubisoft games, some more than others, but they're one of a few game industry companies in the midst of a very public round of employee abuse allegations, where their response has been, basically, to throw a couple of people under the bus, make noises about needing to change, then do little in the way of visibly pursuing the change they need to make, almost as if they're hoping that the news cycle will move on, and they can just get back to business as usual.  Here's a recent Kotaku article, if you want to start digging into details on your own.

So, yeah, I played the game over the course of a couple of days.  It's no masterpiece, but it's a fine little game for what it is.  I wish I could recommend you track down a copy and buy it on the cheap, but I can't, in good conscience, say you should give any money to Ubisoft, or even support the used market for their games, as things stand.  But, if it's in your backlog already, maybe dust it off and give it a go.  I polished off the main thrust of the game over 2 days, had my fun, and now that's one less landmine sitting in my backlog.