Activities

Today

tubberware

May 2023

Continuing clearing my bought games backlog (slowly). Adding some games that I have bought, sometimes years ago. Guess I just want to avoid playing current backlog items in the library. :D Still a bit struggle keeping proper balance in achievement hunting. Both Dicey Dungeons and DungeonTop had way too much grinding that I somewhat managed to avoid. So looking a bit better.

Finished

Yakuza Kiwami

38.6 hours, 40 of 55 achievements

Click to expand

I skipped this for a long time. Didn't have proper time for it but now finally finished it. It is a strange mixture of serious (main plot) and goofy (side quests) story telling with a bunch of mini games thrown in. Alright action game but nothing special.


Dicey Dungeons

26.9 hours, 28 of 53 achievements

Click to expand

Didn't enjoy this one. The roguelike elements were not that interesting and basic gameplay is a bit too repetitive. Game is also quite hard on more difficult levels. Couple bad turns in row can literally end your run in the first enemy. On the plus side, each character felt different as they all had their own core system.


DungeonTop

19.1 hours, 23 of 39 achievements

Click to expand

It was enjoyable game of its genre. Nothing too fancy or exceptional but core elements were alright.


Ongoing

Slasher's Keep

17.4 hours, 5 of 30 achievements


Progress

05
9% (36/393)
80% (316/393)
5% (20/393)
1% (3/393)
5% (18/393)
04
9% (36/391)
80% (313/391)
5% (21/391)
1% (4/391)
4% (17/391)
03
9% (36/385)
80% (309/385)
5% (20/385)
1% (3/385)
4% (17/385)
02
9% (35/384)
79% (305/384)
5% (21/384)
1% (3/384)
5% (20/384)
01
9% (34/383)
79% (303/383)
6% (22/383)
1% (3/383)
5% (21/383)
Jaded

Monthly Update: May 2023

Another month of multiplayer games!

We finished the campaign for Back 4 Blood, and went back to DRG for a bit.
I saw Valheim had an update and I hadn't played since 2021, so we created a modded server and have had about 7 of us playing.
Going by steam, I have played 42 hours in the last 2 weeks.. We just finished the last boss so far (The Queen) tonight.

I also took a lot of screenshots in Valheim this month.
So two multiplayer games off the backlog, and one added due to a freebie this month!


Played

Backlog

    Free

  • Metro: Last Light Complete Edition

Yesterday

Aquilla

Finished in May (1-3)

  • Little Inferno

    5 hours playtime

    17 of 22 achievements

Little Inferno

7/10

Very, very weird little game - you are burning stuff in a furnace. You get money and you can buy more stuff to burn. The game part is a little challenge in which you need to guess what to burn together to match a vague hint (for example to fulfill Wake Up! hint, you need to burn coffe cup and a clock. It was simple, but weirdly hipnotizing, so I ended up finishing it.

  • Yooka-Laylee

    16 hours playtime

    21 of 35 achievements

Yooka-Laylee

5/10

This is a very annoying game - there is something wrong with it and I cannot say, what. It has every ingredient of a good 3D platformer, but there is something off. It is build like an old collect platformer - you have a few quite big open world levels, and in those levels you need to find chellenges and win enough prizes (in this case - pages of a book) to unlock another level. I gave up when I came to the last level with 65 pages, and I learnt that I need 100 to finish a game. I had enough, it is simply not fun enough to keep playing

  • Mafia II (Classic)

    12 hours playtime

    35 of 67 achievements

Mafia II

7/10

Very oldskull open world game (understandably, it is quite old) with a gameplay very similar to old GTA games. An open world is almost unnecessary, because there is very few things to do, beside the main plot, but the story was quite good, in style of classic mafia movies, like Scarface, Goodfellas, etc. I had fun.

May 29 2023

ninglor03

Ninglors Log 309

22.05.23 – 29.05.23

May Progress:
3
PPU monthly:
done
May Additions:
3

Completed Games:

Builder Simulator

29 hours, 58 of 58 achievements


Won/Gifted Games:
Bought Games:
Golf with your friends
Currently playing:
Founder’s Fortune

So much from me :)
Have a lovely week!
Queen Ninglor

May 28 2023

MouseWithBeer

Fourth week of May

I am legitimately surprised that my game balance is still positive at this point. I think next week it will most likely be RIP.

Current balance of acquired - completed games: 60 - 61 = -1

Completed games

JiPS
Playtime: 9.2 hours
Achievements: 7 of 7 (100%)
Review: A really buggy jigsaw puzzling game that has been removed from the Steam store. There is 30 ship themed images that you can solve on 3 different size options: 6x8, 12x16 and 15x20. Works without issues with Proton.
MouseWithBeer

Third week of May

A week late post, but my life is currently a mess and I don’t have time to exist.

Current balance of acquired - completed games: 56 - 60 = -4

Completed games

Animal Drop Safari
Playtime: 20.8 hours
Achievements: 0 of 0
Review: It is a decent match 3 game with 200 levels to play. The difficulty of them spans in between "oh god this is so boring" and "omg how am I supposed to do this", but overall the difficulty leans more on the harder side, especially on the later levels. The powerups are a bit underwhelming, but other than that I haven't ran into any issues with it. Works without any issues with Proton.
Daerphen
  • Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena

    4 hours playtime

    no achievements

Report #380: Samantha Swift and the Hidden Roses of Athena

Life of Daerphen Challenge Year 2008


Did a quick exchange in the list. Got interested to play something that not necessarily required audio output. Looked nice and not too long. Old hidden object game, the screen resolution has not aged well, but the puzzles are good enough to keep me interested. After about 4 hours the story was already done.

Sv. Prolivije

Well, it’s almost the end of May, and so, it’s time for the last Screenshot Sunday of the month. May as a whole has been productive, but I’ll save that for my round up post. The screenshot I went with this time is from the game I’m playing at the moment — Outlast 2. I was never a fan of it when I played it initially, but somehow, the game grew on me these past few days, and I’m really enjoying it. I do hate one thing — you can’t turn off the ear-piercing music. Would have loved to see what the game feels like without it, especially considering how loud it is at times, making it so I can’t even hear the enemy’s footsteps.

So, I hope you enjoy this calm screenshot, as most of Outlast is pretty gruesome. But there are a few PG13-friendly moments worth a screenshot, and this was one of them.

image

Blake at the lake

May 27 2023

Kyrrelin

March 2023 report


Back on Sherlock’s wave after two months’ pause and even in a big style! Also except for Momodora everything we started in March we have completed, pretty productive month. :3

Enough of small talks and now to the actual assassinations! Good luck in a new month and enjoy your games!

Oh boy, I have enjoyed this game, one of the best in the series for sure!

In Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments we don't follow one specific storyline, like we are used to from the previous games, instead we solve six independent mysterious cases that require the expertise of our dear Sherlock and his friend Doctor Watson. The murders are nicely varied and the crime scenes take us to different places around London (even outside of it) - the change of scenery and mood in every chapter is a nice touch. Uncovering the true culprit(s) can be challenging and even though few of the cases are pretty clear right from the beginning it didn't spoil the fun of deducting every possible scenario.

Pond

Previous games in the series were (more or less) standard adventure games, this one though is heavily concentrated on Sherlock's detective skills - mainly observation and deduction. Your main goal is to thoroughly search every crime scene for anything that could help with solving the crime. What may seem like a random item at the beginning can turn into important evidence during the investigation. Observing your opponents during conversations is also very important, like that you can learn many things about them which can then shed more light on the mysterious events. Try to not overlook anything as everything you find influences the deduction board where you build your conclusions - to find the true one you have to dig deep to uncover all the hidden secrets and also correctly connect all the dots!
Aside from searching for evidence and questioning anyone with ties to the dead persons you need to further analyze some of the items with the help of Sherlock's chemical table or search in his archives for more information. Sherlock's disguise talent will also shine as you have to pick him the right suit for some occasions. There are not many puzzles, they consist mostly of lockpicking and event reconstruction.

Have to say that this game is very pretty. Both the scenery and characters look very lively, it's a joy to look at it. Music is very fitting. Voice acting is pretty good. Doctor Watson has a new actor and even though it was a little shocking at first, I quickly found him appealing. Sherlock is once again voiced by Kerry Shale </em > who is just amazing! I find him truly fitting Sherlock's character and it's a joy to listen to him (little side note: he is also voicing main protagonist in Someday you'll return). As you play through the game you open new suits for Sherlock which you can then wear (like the casual look which suits him very much). Aside from playing as the great detective you will turn into the four-legged helpful companion, Toby.
The pace of the game is very good and you won't have time to feel bored. After you play through each chapter you can then select whichever one you wish and replay it - the game will still remember the results of your other cases. My only complaint goes to the "long" loading screen during traveling. Sometimes you need to often change the locations and this intermezzo slightly disrupts the atmosphere. At least you get to look at Sherlock and his companions. ;)

Casual look

I can totally recommend Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments to the lovers of good detective stories and adventure games! It was very enjoyable experience. <3


Indivisible is hard to rate because it does few things right… but on the other hand many things about it is wrong, so wrong that I can't recommend it… or at least with a warning. I tried to like it and I even did, for the first part, but then it turned into hate. It's really a shame as the game had such a big potential.

So, in the game we follow young, hot-headed girl Ajna on a quest for vengeance which turns into a quest for self redemption. And of course to save the world from a complete destruction. On her journey she meets a wide variety of people (20 in total) with their own problems and every one of them will (un)willingly join our heroine on her quest. With them she will travel around the "world", visit different cities and wreak havoc… ehm sorry, save them from any danger that may befall them, meanwhile uncover hidden mysteries about her past and embark on a path towards becoming a better person… ugh.

I have liked the colorful anime visuals (especially the intro) and the soundtrack which is really good (made by Hiruki Kikuta) and creates throughout the game a fitting atmosphere. Characters are "fully" voiced, meaning they talk only in some important story moments or during fights, and most of them corresponded nicely with their voices. I have also mainly enjoyed the fights, which are rather very hectic (as they happen in real-time) and turn into simple mash the buttons tactic, but can still be fun. I have found few of the characters likeable, but they don't have any opportunity to grow over their unimportant Incarnations status. Story is nothing extra, quite standard and it felt like I had seen it already somewhere.

Now for the things I didn't like.

  • Weak characters - as I said there are 20 playable characters (there were plans for even more), which is a pretty high number and because of it none of them get a proper space to shine. We basically know next to nothing about them. Their relationship with Ajna (or with each other) doesn't progress anywhere and remains only on the starting line. Later in the game you can receive quest from them which is closely connected to their troubles. You then go and fight one battle with them in the group and voila! everyone is happy.
    I would have appreciated much, much more if they focused on limited number of them and brought us some serious character development.
  • Inner realm - your companions are traveling inside your mind and you can visit them anytime, there you can talk with them… throughout the whole game they will offer like four/five different lines, depends on how long you are with them… wow, what a number. Like that you can easily bond with them - yes, I mean it as a sarcasm.
  • Platforming - aside from the fights main aspect of the game. Some of the platforming sequences are very hard and I felt very, VERY much frustrated by them. It wouldn't be a problem if those paths were optional (to collectable, secret, etc.), but the most difficult ones are on the route that is mandatory for story progression… like this it's just a torture. Also the feeling of frustration was omnipresent because I knew I would need to do them repeatedly. The unresponsive controls during jumps and huge amount of possible combos you are required to perform in a quick succession didn't helped much with it.
  • Exploration - the world is out there and you can go everywhere you want if you have the needed weapon. As with every Metroidvania game you can get somewhere you shouldn't and that means revisiting that place in the near future again. That would be fine, if you didn't have to re-do the locations again and again and again and again… even though you open short-cuts or the new weapon skills provide you an easier progression it doesn't offer any relief. The layout of the map, or more like of the story, is so badly made that you often stumble upon empty space which then much longer hold some quest which means that you have to yet again navigate through the horrible platforming and there is no way in avoiding it.
  • Companion's quests - not sure if there is some pattern, but they open for you when you are after half of the game (most like three quarters of the game). Most stupid choice. You are then done with exploring the maps and you have been almost everywhere. That means that you have to go through the same area yet without any change only to find that one fight, win it and go back the same way you came. Rise and repeat 20 times.
    To make it worse you don't get access to all of the quests in the same moment, so even if some characters have it on the same map you can't do it at once and like that save yourself from yet another platforming sequence.
  • Fights - mostly fun, at the beginning rather unbalanced, later fights are not much of a challenge. Separate cases are boss fights which have three phases and contain additional challenges between each phase. Oh, and whoever thought that adding a platforming challenge without a save point in the middle of a boss fight is an unbelievable idiot! The last phase of the ultimate boss fight is focused only on your ability to perfectly block an attack, which isn't an easy thing to do once let alone repeatedly for a longer time.
  • Story - feels very rushed and undeveloped with a few inconsistencies (at the beginning of the story Ajna's father looked like he was in his late twenties, sixteen years later he looked like he was almost eighty; also his whole figure is completely different). There is one moment in the story that made me most unwilling of continuing in the game. That one moment can't be prevented or altered… that one moment destroyed every positive feeling I had for the game and the remaining playing time wasn't as enjoyable as before. Even though I understand why it happened, the delivery of the situation, the overall timing and mood was completely wrong! After completing Indivisible I felt nothing. The epic closure that happened meant nothing for me, because the whole story and it's characters were shallow even though the creators tried hard to hide it behind extensive gestures and emotional phrases.

The main price for Indivisible is 39,99€ - definitely NOT worth it, also don't forget the fact that the game was released without many promised features (some of them are shown in the official promos). I got it as a gift and still feel a little bit ripped off… If you are interested in it, grab it during a huge sale.


Half-Life 2

The Testament of Sherlock Holmes

3.5/5
13.7 hours
32 of 32 achievements

In The Testament of Sherlock Holmes we will take a peek under the coat of distinguished Sherlock Holmes only to find that hideous criminal hide beneath it? Even his close, long-time friend Doctor Watson begins to question Sherlock's motives as a strange series of events portray the great consulting detective in a bad light. The truth is hidden out there in the dark, dirty alleys of London so let's find it!

First thing that you can notice about this game (when comparing it to the older titles) is that the graphics went through some serious upgrades and it's a rather pleasant change. The overall tone stays dark and grim, which suits the detective theme. All the characters and environment look good, although some problems are still present - like truly dark areas where you don't see a thing or not so good lip sync during conversations. Music is all right. There is a new voice actor for Sherlock Holmes, Kerry Shale, who does a nice job in his shoes (little side note: he is also voicing main protagonist in Someday you'll return, which was a big surprise for me). He sounds very close to the previous actor, so the change isn't that apparent and it doesn't disturb the immersion built throughout the whole series. Watson is voiced by the same actor. Voices of other characters were improved, except for those of children (they still sounded pretty silly).

Gameplay wise it's a standard adventure game where you have to search different kinds of rooms, alleys or even dead bodies for clues and then further analyze them to uncover the truth. Also let's not forget about the puzzles - there are quite a lot of them, they are nicely varied, logical and rather pretty good! Most of them offer a challenge, but shouldn't prove too hard to solve.
You are still free to pick your desired point of look (first-person, thirds-person or standard point-and-click). Besides Sherlock you are gonna spent a lot of time as Watson and even as a most helpful companion Toby!

My biggest complaint goes to the story. It's… it's just strange and somewhat wrong. Dark portrayal doesn't suit Sherlock at all and what's worse it isn't even believable. I was quite at loss for most of the time as the plot holes are sadly rather big. In the end, I didn't pay much attention to the story. Watson is much bigger help this time and also not such a good for nothing sidekick, but him doubting Holmes is ridiculous. On the other hand Sherlock turns into a complete idiot.
There is still some kind of stability problem and the game may crash from time to time. For me it happened only twice, I believe, so it wasn't such a frustrating problem as with the Jack the Ripper, but it may be annoying if it would be more often.

Even though the story wasn't up to my taste I have liked the visuals, puzzles and overall atmosphere of the game, so I can safely recommend it to fans of adventure games. Oh and the credits are perfect!

Half-Life 2

Dracula: Love Kills

4/5
12.0 hours
33 of 33 achievements

Another hidden object game from the creators of Sherlock Holmes' games - Frogwares. Their first HOG Sherlock Holmes and The Hound of The Baskervilles was quite enjoyable (my review). Shame that there aren't more from them, because this one is also quite good.

Count Dracula awakens from years long slumber after being defeated by Van Helsing to learn that the world is threatened by the Queen of Vampires and what's worse, his beloved Mina Harker is nowhere to be found! As he is still weakened and has yet to accumulate his powers back, Dracula has to form an unbelievable pact with his Nemesis. With the help of over zealous Igor and cautious Van Helsing he sets around the world in a search for means of destroying the Queen and saving Mina from her bloody clutches!

I have really liked the dark mysterious setting of a known story with a new kind of development. Graphics are very nice and detailed, and the music fits the game nicely. Voice acting is a little bit crazy, but overall funny. My only complaint goes to the lacking cutscenes where we watch the night sky while Dracula summarizes our story progression.

Both hidden object scenes and puzzles are of good quality and you shouldn't get stuck on any of them. After completing a scene you will be notified so you don't have to search through various places to move on. It works even on expert difficulty, as well as quick travel through map.
For completing the game you have to make two playthroughs as you can be truthful Prince of Darkness and satiate your blood thirst right from women's necks or you can reach deep inside, uncover your hidden humanity and let them live!
Although the double path is a nice touch, it doesn't add anything new to the game - except for the ending and different companion in the extra chapter.

Anyway, I can recommend this game to lovers of HOGs and supernatural stories. :)

Win from Moony. <3

Free

GoG

April 2021 - the list was made
6% (9/149)
4% (6/149)
6% (9/149)
84% (125/149)
December 2021
8% (13/154)
4% (6/154)
7% (11/154)
81% (124/154)
December 2022
8% (13/164)
4% (6/164)
7% (11/164)
82% (134/164)

Uplay

4% (1/23)
13% (3/23)
83% (19/23)

Origin

33% (7/21)
14% (3/21)
52% (11/21)
robilar5500

Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus [Impatient Destruction] is done and dusted. Definitely a fun XCOM style game with some gameplay tweaks and elements specific to the 40K universe. I doubt I’ll devote the time to get the other endings and cheevos, which would take at least one more playthrough and probably two more, but it was an enjoyable experience. I feel like the 15ish hours it took to complete this run was right at the cusp of turning from fun to somewhat tedious, so the length seemed pretty perfect.

So, tweaks. There isn’t RNG in this one. In fact, I also saw one dodge my entire playthrough, which was probably from an ability. You and your enemies actually can’t miss an attack, so what becomes paramount is positioning, planning, equipment, and your skill trees. The skill trees are linear and IMO, it’s best to conclude one before starting new ones for each Tech Priests.

You have two core types of soldiers: Tech Priests, which are your heroes, so to speak; and Skitarii, which are your expendables. Tech Priests can level up, swap gear, and spend currency on skill trees. Skitarii have a wide variety, but each is a specialist, like snipers, grunts, etc…you can also upgrade these via the reward system for completing quests, but they can’t actively be leveled up. The enemies in this game follow a similar pattern with heroes and base soldier types.

How you play is you select a mission from one of several Magus (quest givers), select who us going on the quest and any Canticles you want to bring, and then you explore a nide based map until completing the mission objective. Canticles are basically one use buffs, of which you can equip up to three. Some are individual unit buffs, some are squad buffs. These can really make or break a mission. I generally saved mine for the final battle of each map.

Also, it’s worth noting that the home base UI has a somewhat daunting appearance, but you quickly realize it’s actually very user friendly.

Anyway, fun game and one probably a lot of you own via Humble Choice or a few other bundles. I’d say it’s worth a look. I played on the Steamdeck with no issues beyond my first attempt to open the game, when I realized I needed to run an update on my Deck itself lol.