Activities
Today
Blasting the racing playlist while playing this gem
5 minutes playtime
0 of 20 achievements
Yesterday
For Pickers. Just copy paste and complete the data :)
* [GAME#1](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#1-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#1-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#2](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#2-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#2-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#3](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#3-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#3-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#4](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#4-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#4-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#5](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#5-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#5-HLTBTIME
- Please make sure your games are sorted by completion before applying.
- If you so desire and you have at least 5 unplayed SG wins, the 5 games can be picked out of your SG wins (instead of only 2/5). Just note it in your application comment.
- Note in your post if you're ok playing multiplayer only games.
- Same for Early Access (I know some people want to wait for release).
- When you finish one (or more) of the games picked for you, please post an update by replying to your picker's comment.
- If the game has achievements, you can link to either the Steam or Astats page corresponding to your progress.
- If the game doesn't have achievements, please post a screenshot showing your completion.
- Finally, if you have completed all the games that were assigned to you but want another go at it, feel free to post another application.
- You can pick for/challenge up to 2 fellow assassins, please refrain to pick more so everybody who wants get a chance at it.
- You can pick for anybody who has applied and hasn't been given a list yet, unless they specified otherwise (see next point). It is recommended to signal with a "reserved" comment that you're currently picking for that person. This way it'll avoid the situation where you spend time picking games just to come back to somebody's comment 2 minutes prior.
- Please use the following criteria when picking a list for somebody.
- Pick exactly 5 games
- Length-wise: at least 2 short games (under 10h to beat) and 2 medium (under 15-20h). You can use HLTB to check the time, or more conveniently the Enhanced Steam browser extension (it shows the HLTB time directly on the game's steam page). That rule can be overridden by the bottom (i.e. pick 5 short games) but not the other way around, as not everybody has the same time to dedicate to gaming.
- Pick two SG wins unless the person specified SG wins only, in which case pick only in the applicant's SG wins list.
- Quality-wise: at least 3 of the 5 games should have a positive (or above) rating. You can use this site to quickly sort games in a user's library by ratings (thanks to JaffaCaffa for the suggestion).
- Please, respect the applicant's choice regarding multiplayer-only and Early access games, as well as other requests (exclusion of certain genre etc.).
- Please use the code below to post your comment, it's already formatted, you just have to copy/paste & complete the data.
Do I have to participate in this event?
No, this is an event to help you reduce your backlog. If you already have a plan and don't want anyone to pick games for you, you're free to ignore it.
What happens if I don’t participate in the event?
Absolutely nothing.
What happens if I play all the games picked for me this month?
Still nothing. (You might get a shiny profile badge at some later date. And you can come back for another batch.)
What if I don’t have time to play 5 games?
Don’t worry, one is enough, we’re just asking the pickers to select 5 to give the player a little choice.
One of the game picked for me won’t run on my computer for X or Y reason, what do I do?
If this happens, please notify the picker by replying his comment and ask them to pick a replacement. If the original picker don’t give you an answer within 24h, don’t panic, just leave a comment and we’ll pick one for you. Meanwhile, you could try one of the other picked games if you haven't played them all yet.
I played all 5 games that were picked for me and I want more!
If you have completed all 5 games and reported your completion to the original comment, you can make a new request for another list.
When picking for other people, can I only pick “never played” games?
Not necessarily, you can also pick games that seem to have been abandoned but haven’t been categorized as “won’t play”. No beaten or completed games, or games being currently played obviously.
Why are there so many rules for picking the games? I can’t be bothered!
We’re trying to make this enjoyable for everyone so if you decide to pick games for others, please read and follow the rules. I’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for the pickers too, but if it’s bothering you too much, remember you don’t need to pick games for others to join the challenge.
I’m new here, can I join the challenge?
Yes of course (and welcome to BLAEO). Please just be sure to have your games sorted by progress before signing up for the challenge, to make it easier for your picker.
If you liked the first Lost Phone, you'll probably like this one. It's basically the exact same mechanics, just a different story. This game does touch on what could be triggering topics for some people, but I do appreciate them including an option you can click at the beginning of the game to view those - that way it doesn't spoil for those who don't tend to be triggered, but those worried can check if the game is something they shouldn't play.
Personally, I really enjoyed the story :)
I made it out alive!
2nd game done as part of the monthly theme
there was a little bit of grinding to unlock some levels but over all had a fun time
5 hours playtime
6 of 59 achievements
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Cook, Serve, Delicious!
34 hours playtime
38 of 52 achievements
i found this satisfying in the way that papers, please is satisfying — the more you play the faster you can do it. i played with the keyboard and changed a couple of ingredient keys that i was getting wrong. it also supports controller or touch, but i have to assume that would be considerably slower! i got sick of the music about halfway to my fully-upgraded restaurant so turned it off but the sounds were very satisfying, especially as i hit the keys quickly to prepare an order.
many of the achievements are grindy but i picked up a couple just on my way to fully upgrading my restaurant. you’ll probably have favorite menu items too which could get you one of the “pin” achievements like it did for me. i played a little beyond fully upgrading but quickly got to the point where i kept getting more money but there wasn’t really anything to spend it on. there are still upgrades that randomly come into my email i could wait for as well as more dates that also randomly show up in email, but i decided to move on. if i didn’t also have cook, serve, delicious 2 i may have kept going with this one longer.
Report #56
The last few weeks I worked on my goal of reducing my unfinished games list. All three games I played were on there forever and I finally gave them another try. It worked out better than I anticipated.
Reviews
Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition
One of the two oldest unfinished games in my library, Blood Bowl is a turn-based strategic sports game. Set in the fantasy Warhammer universe, about two dozen different teams compete to become Blood Bowl champion. Blood Bowl is like American Football just more violent. From Orcs to Chaos to Elves, every faction of the Warhammer universe fields its own team with a unique roster of players.
I suspect that the game already was a bit old-school when it was released, and it definitely shows it's age nowadays. However, since its gameplay does not rely on flashy graphics, it really doesn't matter too much. I last played the game in 2012 and was really stumped. I did not understand a thing. So when picking it up again, I first read a bit about it and with some of the advice taken from guides I was quickly able to learn the basics of the game this time. The amount of different teams to choose from is overwhelming at first, but there are basically two ways to play the game: fast passing-games (think Elves) or slow tackling-oriented tactics (think Orcs). I choose the latter and after losing a couple of games I slowly got the hang of it and had moderate success with the Orcs in the remaining games I played.
I had a surprising amout of fun with it judging by my less ideal first impression I got in 2012 and my overall lack of interest in sports. I wouldn't really recommend the game though, because there's already Blood Bowl 2 out (and BB 3 coming).
Evil Genius
Evil Genius is a base building management game, where you try to take over the whole world as an evil genius. The game does not take itself too serious and is rather funny. If you want an impression of the atmosphere of the game, think of the Austin Powers movies and imagine you're playing as Dr. Evil.
I was gifted the game in 2013, but really didn't get into it back then. Unfortunately (other than with Blood Bowl and Fable) I didn't really enjoy it this time either. The basic concept however sounds good. Building up a base from where you start your operations to subjugate the world. You have to train new and different types of minions, research better equipment and defend your base against intruding agents of good. This part is not perfect but decent fun.
In a second part of the game you control your minions on a world map, where they can fulfill mission, steal money to finance your operations or recruit additional minions. In my opinion this part is horrible. Your minions take forever to travel from your base to their missions, in which almost always most of the minions die, so that you have to retrain them. Which can take a long time with the more advanced minion types. And you cannot let your minions simply stay on the world map because they will quickly be rooted out by the agents of the different "good" world powers. Which leads to micromanaging two different aspects of the game in parallel and in realtime. And a lot of stupid waiting in between to retrain minions.
In conclusion: Great concept with good ideas and many funny details. But the execution lacks. I wouldn't want to replay it.
Fable - The Lost Chapters
Fable is a third-person action RPG. It's an absolute classic and I guess most of you have at least heard of it.
I spent a ton of time on this game already, but have never gotten really far into it. I don't exactly know why this is the case. This time I was finally able to push through and finish it. And I really enjoyed my playthrough. Although Fable isn't the longest game it features a suprising amount of very modern ingredients: There are collectibles, ingame games, romance, you can buy houses (and even rent them out), align yourself with evil or good, get a new haircut or even some tatoos. Leveling up, quick travel, quests…every "meta" aspect of the game is handled very well too. And the best part: It still looks quite fine for its age, which I attribute to it's cartoonish art style.
Fable may not have invented each of the aforementioned things (a game historian might be able to tell you more about that than I do), but I think it has to be one of the first games that integrated everything so well into it's gameplay. Everything is there, but in moderation. Everything can be done, but you mostly don't have to use e.g. romance or renting out stuff. You are very free to play the game the way you want, the story is almost linear though.
Currently playing
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Gothic
1.6 hours playtime
no achievements
Since I’m already playing through a lot of unfinished old games, I might as well continue with it and finally give Gothic a try. I have only played it for about an hour previously, so I’m going into it without any nostalgia. Let’s see what awaits me.
All three were games I wasn’t really keen on playing, but I gave myself a push and started them up regardless. I ended up being really positively surprised in the end. Yes, Evil Genius wasn’t to my liking, but Blood Bowl and Fable were really much better than anticipated. I’m happy to finally complete some games that have been left unfinished in my backlog for ages. And I was also able to make some great progress with my third goal for 2021. Let’s hope I’ll enjoy Gothic as well.
Happy backlog-clearing to everyone,
Vito
2021 goals: 2/10 achievement games – 4/10 long games – 55/49 unfinished games
Weekly Games #141
Sakura Fox Adventure
1.5 hours, 10 of 10 achievements
Yozora Rhapsody
5.2 hours, 4 of 4 achievements
Sweet Lily Dreams
31.0 hours, 34 of 38 achievements
I was classing bonus games as ones I’ve done before and ones not on steam but I realised now that I deleted my records I don’t know what games I talked about the 1st time. Like I’ve done games but forgot to talk about them, they are classed as a 2nd chance, even games that I might’ve not beaten will be classed as that so I don’t know what is what. For my favourite games it will still be focusing on games never touched of course but I think I gotta just add whatever is done from steam onto my monthly report. I will keep these reports to new only since I should always be tackling something like sweet lily dreams here who has been on 2 reports and still no where near close to done
May 13 2021
Update 90: May 1st to 13th
May is kicking my behind. Got super lucky and won far too many games but had far too little time to play any -_-
I also finally completed Farm Together wohoo
Really liked the game. Very informative for a VN
What I did not like was that you needed the DLC from 2016 for getting the achivements and even then you have to start the game via Steam app and choose the 2016 version to get the achivements. Could have been integrated into the general game. This way it is just really confusing.
I really like these type of games. I love the added word game mode where you have to type words as fast as you can. Other than that you have a number and alphabet one and some harder variants of the last two. Some of the achivements are a bit grindy though because you have to get every letter over 100 times and it is rather hard to get letters like z and x. Still need to get the last few ones.
Overall Backlog Progress:+0,06% change to last times unfinished/never played games (67,98% unfinished games)
Overall SG Wins Progress:+1,19% change to last times unfinished/never played games (44,38% unfinished games)
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Pixel Puzzles Ultimate
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Regrowth
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Bayonetta
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Mass Effect™ Legendary Edition
0 hours playtime
no achievements
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Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest
SG wins:
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Crew 167: The Grand Block Odyssey
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Hidden Object Bundle 4 in 1
0 hours playtime
no achievements
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Dreamwalker: Never Fall Asleep
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Endless Fables 4: Shadow Within
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Hero Defense
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Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?!
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The Secret Order 8: Return to the Buried Kingdom
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Golf With Your Friends
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XCOM: Chimera Squad
BLAEO Monthly:
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Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest
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Mass Effect™ Legendary Edition
0 hours playtime
no achievements
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Pesterquest
0 hours playtime
no achievements
PoP: thanks to LastM & RiseOfValhalla for challenging me
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Hand of Fate
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Shenmue I & II
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Fall of Light: Darkest Edition
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Bayonetta
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Vampyr
PAGYWOSG: :
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Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Heart of the Forest
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Mass Effect™ Legendary Edition
0 hours playtime
no achievements
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Pesterquest
0 hours playtime
no achievements
Just for fun:
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Pixel Puzzles Ultimate
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Planet Zoo
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Stardew Valley
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Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
Main Quest #152 - 13 May 2021
Beautiful game with beautiful art and music. The mechanics and boss fights can get a bit frustrating towards the end, but overall the game is satisfying enough to surpass those flaws.
2nd Game as part of the monthly theme
Wish me luck am going in!
33 minutes playtime
4 of 59 achievements