Activities

Yesterday

Mitsukuni

Oldest Unfinished 30


I wanted to do this challenge for quite some time and I still won’t put myself a deadline for this. However for events I attend, I will try to pick at least one from this list so I can finish these games in the foreseeable future. The list is simple. I sorted the games with “Date Added to Library” and picked the oldest and unfinished 30 games. There aren’t any games I don’t want to play here because. I also didn’t included the ones I couldn’t delete but hide. This list has a lot of fairly long games so let’s see how long will this take.

# Game Date Added to Library Playtime Notes Status
1 SpellForce - Platinum Edition 2013-01-03 11.3 h Played this offline a lot but it’s time to finish the long campaign.
2 Uplink 2013-08-13 1.7 h Time to become Neo. Again.
3 Darwinia 2013-08-13 1.7 h Already installed.
4 Multiwinia 2013-08-13 0.1 h -
5 FEZ 2013-09-11 6.5 h Actually played this fairly enough but I guess I bailed it because it got somewhat complicated. Probably will need a guide.
6 Port Royale 3 2014-01-16 5.3 h This was added to my library over a hype since I like Port Royale 2 a lot. However this was kind of a disappointment like Kalypso did with a lot of IP. At least gotta try to finish the campaign.
7 Sid Meier’s Railroads 2014-02-12 3.2 h Played this a lot before Steam but never finished the campaign.
8 Age of Empires II: HD 2014-03-09 24.3 h Already have the Definitive Edition as well but oldies are goodies.
9 Eryi’s Action 2014-03-14 8.3 h I think I left this game because couldn’t beat the last boss. We’ll see.
10 Home Sheep Home: Farmageddon 2014-04-19 1.6 h I have this game since the name was Home Sheep Home 2. Somehow forgot this existed. Not anymore.
11 Go! Go! Nippon! 2014-04-22 3.5 h I don’t have any of the DLC so should end quickly. Right?
12 Tropico 5 2014-05-14 71.8 h One of those rare games I pre-ordered because I really liked Tropico 4. This game has some quirks and I will need to play all over because my save files are missing. ~Sigh!
13 Skyborn 2014-05-29 5.1 h I started this but barely even remember the story.
14 Fallout: New Vegas 2014-06-24 3.6 h *I’m not really fond of this game because of the apocalyptic setting. Will try my chances again.
15 The Bridge 2014-08-25 3.7 h I think I was halfway through. It’s an interesting puzzle game by the way.
16 Total War: SHOGUN 2 2014-09-12 3.8 h I almost like everything about Total War games (at least the historical ones) but I always found the gameplay too slow for my taste.
17 Super Meat Boy 2014-10-26 1.6 h I have a love/hate relationship with precision platformers. Hopefully won’t hate it much this time.
18 Sid Meier’s Civilization V 2014-11-27 10.2 h One of those long games I kept for later but that later never came. Maybe it is time.
19 Tomb Raider: Legend 2014-12-01 1.6 h Started but never finished.
20 Tomb Raider: Anniversary 2014-12-01 1.6 h Started but never finished. v2
21 Tomb Raider: Underworld 2014-12-01 1.3 h Started but never finished. v3
22 DARK SOULS: Prepare To Die Edition 2014-12-25 4.1 h I’m not done with my suffering.
23 Banished 2014-12-27 0 h Played this fairly offline but didn’t play much anyway.
24 King’s Bounty: The Legend 2015-01-26 0.5 h -
25 King’s Bounty: Crossworlds 2015-01-26 0.1 h This is basically 2 games since it also includes “Armored Princess”.
26 Total War: EMPIRE 2015-03-30 3.7 h Same comment with Shogun 2.
27 Prison Architect 2015-5-17 20.1 h Peak Introversion. Almost all of my playtime is from early access times. It was good until Paradox ruined it. At least we can play the Introversion version under the betas section.
28 Final Fantasy III: 3D Remake 2015-06-16 25 h I like playing Final Fantasy games without finishing them. :)
29 Cities: Skylines 2015-10-04 3.7 h Again, kept it for later and that later never came.
30 Valkyria Chronicles 2015-11-11 19.1 h SG win. Actually I liked this game but couldn’t pass a 1 hour-long boss fight three times so I bailed. Later I learned we can level up the units outside of main missions. Hopefully it won’t be so bad this time.
ninglor03

Ninglors Log 342

11.03.24 – 18.03.24

March Progress:
4
PPU monthly:
done
March Additions:
1

Completed Games:

Half-Life 2

Ikonei Island: An Earthlock Adventure

25 hours
27 of 36 achievements
Half-Life 2

Dark Romance: The Ethereal Gardens

3 hours
no achievements

Won/Gifted Games:
Bought Games:
Currently playing:
Island of Insight No Place Like Home

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

Mar 17 2024

robilar5500

Alright. Chained Echoes is done and dusted. This is an epic JRPG adventure with a sweeping story where your party tries to prevent an apocalypse while also trying to stop a civil war, helping civilians and solving other mysteries along the way. There is soooo much content, and yet somehow, the download is only 800mb lol. Anyway, it took me about fourty three hours to complete the story and the majority of content.

You will have four active characters at a time, but you’ll end up with quite a few party members by the end of the game. Additionally, at some point, you’ll earn a base, where your party members can chill, and where you will also invite a variety of NPCs that passive boosts, extra items, storefronts, and so on. And, you’ll also be given an airship at that point, making travel around the world much easier and giving you access to new areas. Prior to that, you have to rely exclusively on a fast travel system with teleport points opening up as you find waypoint crystals.

This is a loot heavy RPG, and so you’ll be leveling up your party members (who thankfully all level up together), unlocking new abilities and buffs. You’ll also earn SP, which is used to level up the abilities you know. You will also level up your weapons and armor via use of anvils and materials found or purchased, and can use special crystals found throughout the game to buff your weapons and armor with a variety of abilities and stat boosts.

Additionally, you can find secret locations throughout the world that, after proving yourself in battle at these locations, can each offer what is essentially an equip-able secondary class with special abilities and boosts.

Battles are turn based, and there are thankfully no random encounters. You might trigger an encounter by entering an area, but for the mist part, you can see exactly what you’re going to fight ahead of time.

Early on, you’ll join an Adventurers Guild, and via a rewards board, you earn cash and other stuff by meeting benchmarks, such as finding a certain amount of chests, defeating “x” amount of an enemy type, etc…and will also be rewarded for killing unique monsters that inhabit the world and are functionally optional boss fights.

So, with some gameplay specifics out of the way, and as mentioned earlier, this story is truly epic in my opinion. Navigating political intrigue while also dealing with day to day life and several types of apocalypses is a lot to keep track of and this game never loses focus, never forgets where it is, and never writes itself into narrative corners. It was very impressive.

The sights and sounds in this game are no less impressive. There are numerous unique locations, impressive representations of abilities and spells in combat, cool music catering to the moments in the game, and just overall vibrancy and life breathed into the setting both graphically and from an audio perspective.

It was a seamless experience on the Steam Deck out of the box, and generous with battery life running at about four hours for me.

Recency bias aside, this might genuinely be one of the greatest JRPGs ever made, and certainly the top one in recent memory, which includes contemporaries such as Sea of Stars. This was given to me as a gift, but there is no question it earns its asking price. And did I mention that this game was the vision of one person and the majority of work on it seems to have been handled by like three people? Impressive. Give it a look for sure.

Sv. Prolivije

Hmmm, I promised to “port” my Halo reviews here last week…

excuse

I’ll try to do it this week, pinky promise. I was a bit busy last week. Even managed to complete two games, wooo. The games in question are Emily is Away <3 and Heal. One I was disappointed in, feeling as if I wasted my time, and Heal was actually a pretty fun game, albeit a step down in terms of narrative from the devs previous games (The Distraint series).

Anyway, for Screenshot Sunday #46 I shall once again, post a cute shot from Halo, building that non-existent hype for my upcoming review ports. It’s from Halo: Reach probably my favorite story-wise. I just love the tone and feelings it left me with. It did help that it was my first game in the series, and that I knew nothing about the planet, the universe or the first game. The ending hit 10x harder, but I am glad it did.

Emile is chad

Please, Emile, close the door, you're letting all the plasma bullets in



Until next week (probably sooner, as I gotta pump out those Halo reviews of mine, and there’s 7 in total).

erintesden

Recently got very interested on Suda 51’s Kill the Past.
I watched some playthroughs of Twilight Syndrome (one of the first game he worked) and Moonlight Syndrome (First game he directed), both in japanese -they were never localized- but luckily traslated in youtube. The latter having a really weird plot as most of Suda51 stuff.

And also, Moonlight was this baby prequel.

  • The Silver Case

    8 minutes playtime

    0 of 25 achievements

Has a very curious look for what I have seen. Started playing today. Plot seems already quite interesting!

Mar 16 2024

NateSCC
Half-Life 2

WRC 10 FIA World Rally Championship

6.5/10
27.2 hours
40 of 46 achievements (87%)

#291
#9 of 2024
March 16, 2024

Mar 15 2024

Vasharal

QUARTER BREAKDOWN

FEBRUARY



The Month of Grindy and Mundane Completions



ICE AGE SCRAT'S NUTTY ADVENTURE


Despite having a great start of the year, I feel that February could have started and stayed a lot better. I started Ice Age Scrat's Nutty Adventure which I won via Steamgifts, but to my surprise, it was one of the poorest platformer games I ever played. Completing it was more boring than I hoped for and despite being glad I completed it, I wish I wasted time playing other games from my backlog.



At the end of the day, I believe this game was solely dedicated towards children and/or players who are new to gaming as it offers simple and easy to do control, with overall little improvements until the end of the game.

14.4 hours

Verdict: Bad


Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure falls short of its potential as a platformer inspired by similar games. Unfortunately, it lacks the enjoyable and engaging elements found in its counterparts. With repetitive gameplay, lack of creativity, and a simplistic approach, it fails to captivate. While it might appeal to newcomers to gaming or young children without much gaming experience, I cannot recommend it to a wider audience.



SKULL AND BONES


After considering something different I found out that Skull & Bones was finally released. Not being sure if I wanted to play this game and spend £50 on it, I quickly picked up the trial that offers you 8 hours to test out the game. By my surprise, the game isn't as bad as most people claim it is. Is it worth £50? No! Absolutely not, but it's not a bad pirate game. I have no intention to play it any time soon on the Ubisoft platform and will buy it on Steam when it launches with a proper discount. The game is gorgeous but lacks attention to details in dialogues and characters, which Ubisoft lost complete touch with that ever since Assassin's Creed Syndicate and other titles released during that period.



What I'm looking forward from this game is more content, the liberty to move freely on the ship at least, customization of ship members outside of their outfits, treasure hunting, and more quality of life improvements to make the title be worth £50 and be considered a quality AAA, because the AAAA is far-fetched.

7 hours
Played on Ubisoft Connect

Verdict: Good

Skull and Bones has the potential to be a great pirate game. With an emphasis on combat and customization, this game could go toe to toe with Sea of Thieves if the developers would listen to their audience and provide quality-of-life improvements, gameplay elements, and more simulation/sandbox features.



CHAMPION OF ANDIA


I got this game for testing a few days before by a solo developer to see how the game was. Initially, it was a request to feature it on my YouTube channel, but I refused as I didn't find the game fit for what I am posting there. The game is rough on the edges and needs a lot of time in development to be considered finished. It has potential but lacks a fast-paced combat from the type of arena combat. It's very weighty and slow.



The game needs a lot more work for me to be able to fully review it. For a solo, beginner, I believe that it's admirable work. I can't review games the same was as when a team of experienced people are making a game or a large company the size of thousands with a well known publisher.

1.1 hours
None


JUST CAUSE 2


Last game played in February and one of the most tedious and boring games to complete in all my few years of completionist. You're required to do mundane tasks over and over again, clearing bases, villages and towns/cities. It is a game that I wish it offered something more interesting on the story department, but that area fails pretty easily. The visuals are still something that I personally think holds up the game well. Animations can be a bit strange, but overall, not a bad looking game for it's time.



My biggest disappointment is that I did not complete this game 100% in February, despite leaving this game at 60% completion, the 15% grind took me more than half of month pushing myself through the struggle to get it all done, to no avail.

109.2 hours

Verdict: Good


One of the best-looking games of its time and the largest open-world I've ever played. This game doesn't respect your time as a completionist. You're forced to grind 75% of the map in order to get this game completed. Although a fun game outside completion, it quickly becomes tedious and repetitive in clearing out the map.

</p>


Games Completed this Month


RiseV7

2024 Report

Game Achievements Playtime Added to Library Status
Horizon Zero Dawn 79/79 71h 26 Dec, 2023 Completed
Cocoon 6/17 1.7h 25 Dec, 2023 unfinished
Kraken Academy 0 0h 17 Dec, 2023 unfinished
DEATH STRANDING DIRECTOR’S CUT 63/63 112h 7 Apr, 2023 Completed
Marvel’s Avengers - The Definitive Edition 50/50 86h 11 Jul, 2023 Completed
Five Dates 15/15 5h 24 Sep, 2023 Completed
Mafia II: Digital Deluxe Edition - 2016 67/67 49h 2 Jun, 2016 Completed
INSIDE 0 0h 25 Feb, 2024 unfinished
erintesden

Have been having problems with internet, but this week finished Alan Wake (along the DLCs on collectors edition).

  • Alan Wake

    17 hours playtime

    38 of 67 achievements

Marked it as beat for now, though Im eventually gonna check American Nightmare, not sure if it will appears as its own game or not.
But for now, first game beaten since started using BLAEO!

Daerphen
Challenge me! Bi-Monthly Edition
(15.03.2024 - 14.05.2024)
Technically the name is not accurate. We are switching the event to a two-month schedule to give everybody a little more time to get picks played. If you are fast enough of course you can get challenge multiple times. Just add another comment.

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.