Jaded

Monthly Update #19: November 2020


November

Started very strong this month - the last week and a bit has been stressful so haven't gamed much.

I maaaay have put in an offer to buy an apartment lol. The amount of stress it is to go through contracts, talking with the real estate, mortgage brokers, conveyancers.. phew. Plus, there is only a short cooling off period so you have to organise your loan etc in less than a week... :( Hopefully it all works out, but we will see. If it goes through, this might change my bundle buying habits haha

Stats

End of November
14% (102/716)
6% (43/716)
16% (111/716)
63% (451/716)
1% (9/716)
End of October
14% (96/701)
6% (42/701)
16% (109/701)
63% (445/701)
1% (9/701)

Completed

Half-Life 2

Staxel

121.8 hours
28 of 28 achievements

YAY. Re-100% done.
I'm now over Staxel..until the next update anyway… :P

The Walking Dead: Season Two

The Walking Dead: Season Two

8.1 hours
40 of 40 achievements

Another great game continuing from the first, this time as Clem. I really felt for the decisions she had to make and who to side with.

Half-Life 2

The Walking Dead: A New Frontier

6.9 hours
30 of 30 achievements

Ok. This is the second time writing this review due to my computer shutting down when writing it previously lol. I feel pretty strongly about this game… It was only OK. So many problems…

First off, graphics. SO many times things glitched, had random strings attached to characters in cut scenes, and random movements of characters that felt like they skipped like 5 seconds between frames. A little bit of care in this would have been appreciated…

Secondly, and most importantly.. the story and choices. Or the illusion of choice. The other games in the series so far really felt like you picked the way the conversation and plot was heading (even knowing it's all mirrors haha). This game… ergh.
To start, the forced romance between you and your brothers wife. I could see this a mile away being a replica of the first season of The Walking Dead TV series, which I actually dropped due to this irritating relationship drama. PLS NO. I did everything possible to avoid this drama, and still, at the end I had to deal with the fall out even though my choices didn't actually lead to this??
Also through out the game, choices would pop up that you'd select, and it felt like the story just followed as if you picked a different option. One example I clearly remember is I had an option to 1. Blame Gabe. 2. Say nothing happened. 3. Say something happened but its sorted. I picked 3, and it ended up that I blamed Gabe anyway… uuuuhhh that wasn't at all what I chose lol.
So there was that frustration of the character doing shit you didn't want them to say anyway.

With the two previous games, the options I chose as Lee and Clem really felt like choices I'd pick. It then didn't feel like I picked something that turned out completely different from what I expected. This also led to me not caring about the characters at all. I wanted Kate to die early in this I just didn't care. The only characters I liked (other than Clem), they killed off early for 'drama' or just wasn't present most the story.

Just eh..
I'd say skip this season if possible, but it does still advance Clem's story line unfortunately. If Clem wasn't in this game, I'd say skip completely. We have already seen a similar story line in the television series..

I was pretty disappointed with this game haha

Half-Life 2

TSIOQUE

3.6 hours
31 of 31 achievements
Half-Life 2

Little Misfortune

3.6 hours
35 of 35 achievements
Half-Life 2

Aurora

0.6 hours
4 of 4 achievements

Cute freebie - takes like 10-20 minutes total.


Beaten

Half-Life 2

Tomb Raider

16.2 hours
24 of 50 achievements

I finally played this game - I bought it on sale..in 2014… Oops.
It was really great fun. No achievement hunting due to an insane looking amount of multiplayer achievements. If it was just single player ones, I would have enjoyed going for them honestly!
The amount of times Lara fell and should have died.. and still had perfect shiny, clean hair all the while :P

The game -kind of- supports Ultrawide. It was pretty frustrating a lot of the times, because it appears that to make it ultrawide they cut off part of the top image. So many times Lara was talking or it was a close-up and you couldn't see even her eyes haha. So if you're playing this game now with an ultrawide, you might have to go into the files and change the settings as the in-game settings aren't great.

Half-Life 2

Rise of the Tomb Raider

19.6 hours
49 of 143 achievements

Beautiful game - more of the same from the first game.

Needed a photo mode so bad :(

Lara seems to fall a lot. :P


Played

Backlog

Gifts

Talking to a friend about story games like the Telltale series - he ended up gifting me Life is Strange Episodes 1-5 the day after when he heard I hadn't played it. Hoping to get around to it soon :)
  • Life is Strange Complete Season

Humble Bundle

HumbleBundle strikes back on my minimal backlog additions last month - time for a new monthly & a VR bundle!
  • The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
  • I Expect You To Die
  • Creed: Rise to Glory™
  • Little Misfortune
  • TSIOQUE
  • Smile For Me
  • Youropa
  • Darksburg
  • Yakuza Kiwami 2
  • Darksiders III
  • Rover Mechanic Simulator
  • Townsmen - A Kingdom Rebuilt

  • Trades

  • Pumpkin Jack
    Pumpkin Jack

  • Free

  • Aurora

JaffaCaffa

Beautiful screenshots. :) Best of luck with the apartment, hope the rest goes well/smoothly!

Jaded

Thank you :D Hopefully it does! I can’t get excited until it’s all set in stone haha

JaffaCaffa

I feel that, definitely stressful beforehand and try the best to go with the flow. I just moved places 3 weeks ago and it’s finally starting to set in now, to get excited & settled it!

Jaded

Oooh yes that is exciting!! Do you have much left to do now?

If this all goes through, it won’t be until end of January that I can move in so I’ve got a bit of stress ahead until then haha

JaffaCaffa

Most of it’s done, waiting on a few furnitures to come & gotta rearrange some stuff but it’s unpacked! Definitely feels like a weight off my shoulder - did the last of my room 2 days ago, setting up my gaming & books. :)

Ahh that’s quite the wait…and yet at the same time it feels like you never have enough time to prepare for moving. Well hope you’re able to enjoy the holidays and not be too stressed in the meantime. Stay safe!

Zelrune

Just bought a house and haven’t been moved in an entire week yet, lots of fixes as it’s an older home. I understand the stress. GL.

Jaded

Oh congratulations!!
Not expensive fixes I hope?

Zelrune

No but it adds up. My washer is 4 pronged but the wall plug is 3, so I had to spend money on a.. dryer adaptor? Then both the spigot’s for the washing machines were old af and leaking, I have an odd but charming small light pole outside that needed fixed. In one of the bathrooms the light came on with the fan and quite frankly it sounds rather terrifying so I had an electrician move the fan switch to the middle switch. (which for some reason, didn’t actually do anything before then. Apparently it wasn’t connected to anything??)
Getting wifi & internet set up, which somehow didn’t work, so I got ethernet cables hardlined in everywhere. I’m waiting atm for someone to show up and add a gutter on one side of the house. When it rains there’s so much water there you could take a shower in it.

Overall though it’s still nicer than my previous home, the sunroom is about 2/4th’s of the house. I have actual mature trees, and an orb spider that lives in the windchime. (The previous owners left the windchime, they didn’t wanna bother the spider.) I also have an army of lizards now and a tarantula who lives by the front door. The previous owners replaced the entire roof and put new fencing in because they were as old as the house, so I don’t need to worry about that for a good few years.
It’s pretty sweet.

Jaded

Oh yeah all those little things definitely add up. Just the call out fee alone for some haha.
I’m hoping I won’t have many issues, seeing as it is a tiny studio apartment I’m looking at!

I’m glad it’s definitely an improvement for you! Can’t say I’m much of a fan of spiders, but then I have to go through essentially a minefield of spider webs daily to get to my car. Must have a family of spiders that somehow rebuild the web everyday to attach it to my car….. Poor spiders.

aonrao

I love the Tomb Raider screenshots you used. I also love the Pumpkin Jack one, but TR ones are new for me. :P
Also you did amazing this month! And I’m proud of you. :P
Also your additions are not so bad… there were some months haha.

Hopefully December will be great and we can end 2020 on a better note than we started it :P

Jaded

Haha thanks - yeah I took a few screenshots this month as well :)

Yay to completions! I might miss out on finishing the Monthly in a Month Challenge this month… I still only have 4/6 games done D:

Hopefully! Depends on the kinds of bundles this month, and the Christmas Sales.. I might be tempted then.

aonrao

Doing 4/6 is still impressive!

And …. oh no, SALES.

Jaded

Well Rover Mechanic isn’t complete yet, but I can say it’s beaten..so 5/6! One more game in less than 2 days. It’s do-able! We’ll see anyway lol

aonrao

You’re really close to finishing it! You can do it 💪

Jaded

DONE 6/6 haha.
Now do I go back and 100% those last 2 :P

aonrao

… probably

Vito

Oh god, the Little Misfortune screenshot made me giggle more than it should :D