#6 Monthly Status Update (December 2018)
Happy New Year everyone! The last month of 2018 was quite unusual for me. Firstly, I got 24 new games, out of which 16 are won SG. It’s one game won every two days! December made me realize that I need to start thinking about limiting my GA entries, because at this rate I’ll never manage to come anywhere close winning with my backlog :O
I guess now I’ll spend the next half a year thinking about how to determine which GAs to enter and which to skip since I’m already only entering for games that look interesting and I’d like to check them out xD
Secondly, since I joined BLAEO I had a notification on my “Won on Steamgifts” subpage saying that some of my games did not sync properly. I didn’t really care about that since I knew what it is that is not being synced: two seasons of Double Fine’s Amnesia Fortnight documentary. Well… I guess someone pushed it a little this month, so the sync completed successfully. Result? I’ve got 45 more “titles” on my won on Steamgifts list (they’re the things without the thumbnails) which completely destroyed my “Won on SteamGifts progress” statistics which you can see at the bottom of my posts. I guess now I need to watch the documentary if I want these percent values to come back to their normal level :V
Out of the games I completed this month there are two I really recommend (both are included on my list of choices for the January Monthly Theme):
- Last Word - an original RPG with a great story, unique setting, unique JRPG-inspired battle system, unique system for unlocking new conversation options and unique uniqueness. The battles start to get a bit repetitive later in the game, but it doesn’t really matter since the story will hold you till the very very end. Includes two main endings (+ one easter egg ending) and a classy soundtrack. My only significant issue with it is the fixed-size small windowed mode which cannot be changed and which is apparently an engine limitation (you can force fullscreen mode, but it looks blurry). If you want to get both endings in one playthrough (like me), I recommend taking a peak at the guide before the end of each of the 5 chapters to make sure you have everything you should have before progressing further. Otherwise, there’s a New Game+ mode where you keep your level, which probably makes the second playthrough a lot faster. Last Word is an underrated gem I recommend to every person who isn’t scared of RPG Maker kind of games.
- Snakebird - this indie gem is the definition of a perfect puzzle game. It’s very though so I wouldn’t recommend it if Portal is the hardest set of puzzles you’ve ever completed or if you’re one of these people who for some reason get frustrated by staring at the screen for 15 minutes without touching the keyboard. Otherwise - totally recommended for puzzle lovers! Cute art style, incredible puzzle design that will make you think “How could have someone designed puzzles that work so well?” and a catchy OST you’ll hum during your day while thinking about that one stupid level which is so small you can draw it up in your mind and keep thinking about approaches you haven’t tried yet, but the solution still escapes you :D
New games: 24
16 from SG, 6 from trades and 2 for free
- BioShock
0 minutes playtime
no achievements
- BioShock Remastered
0 minutes playtime
0 of 65 achievements
- Space Hole 2016
0 minutes playtime
0 of 1 achievements
- Nova-111
0 minutes playtime
0 of 10 achievements
- The Blackwell Legacy
0 minutes playtime
0 of 8 achievements
- Blackwell Unbound
0 minutes playtime
0 of 10 achievements
- Blackwell Convergence
0 minutes playtime
0 of 12 achievements
- LEGO® The Hobbit™
0 minutes playtime
0 of 39 achievements
- Blue Rider
0 minutes playtime
0 of 32 achievements
- All You Can Eat
0 minutes playtime
0 of 11 achievements
- Far from Noise
0 minutes playtime
0 of 9 achievements
- A Bird Story
0 minutes playtime
0 of 1 achievements
- Time Mysteries 2: The Ancient Spectres
0 minutes playtime
0 of 11 achievements
- Ceville
0 minutes playtime
no achievements
- Open Sorcery
0 minutes playtime
0 of 57 achievements
- LEGO® The Lord of the Rings™
0 minutes playtime
0 of 48 achievements
- Resonance
0 minutes playtime
0 of 38 achievements
- Gloom
6 hours playtime
18 of 36 achievements
- Forever Home
0 minutes playtime
0 of 22 achievements
- Rochard
0 minutes playtime
0 of 18 achievements
- PewDiePie: Legend of the Brofist
0 minutes playtime
0 of 58 achievements
- Verde Station
0 minutes playtime
0 of 12 achievements
- OS:Path
0 minutes playtime
0 of 5 achievements
- Starting the Game
0 minutes playtime
0 of 18 achievements
Beaten/completed games: 3
3 completed
- Last Word
10 hours playtime
9 of 9 achievements
- Snakebird
15 hours playtime
11 of 11 achievements
- Maze Lord
7 hours playtime
15 of 15 achievements
Other games with progress: 3
2 continued and 1 started
- Gloom
6 hours playtime
18 of 36 achievements
- Town of Salem
34 hours playtime
37 of 361 achievements
- TowerFall Ascension
18 hours playtime
7 of 30 achievements
Won on SteamGifts progress
Changed since last month:
Won’t play: 2% (-1%)
Never played: 63% (+13%) :O
Unfinished: 3% (-2%)
Beaten: 3% (-2%)
Completed: 28% (-10%) :O
All games progress
Changed since last month:
Unfinished: 3% (-1%)
I’m already only entering for games that look interesting
I’ve stopped entering for games that >just< look interesting probably like over 2 years ago. I’ve been gradually adding personalized conditions what to enter ever since then. In my last months with SG, before I left, the game had to be something I would reasonably play. So it was supposed to be fun for me, my type regardless of opinions, my skill range, etc, and I was supposed to have time for it, like now-ish, not in a year, two or ten. Plus if it turned out I already had several similar games unplayed in my library, I would still pass. The rate of winning slowed down to a level that allowed me to beat all my 2018 wins as I was getting them :)
two seasons of Double Fine’s Amnesia Fortnight documentary.
You can request in group website forums https://steamcommunity.com/groups/attackyourbacklog/discussions/4/ to have all non games removed from the account, if you want. I don’t use Steam for movies, but I asked few times about removing some utility tools attached to games that for some reason had separate IDs and showed up on game list.
Last Word & Snakebird are both lovely games from what I managed to check out. I own both, but played like half an hour tops each, back in the olden times when I would just try out a game in my steam library and move to the next shiny thing without finishing the previous one T_T Since it was pre-BLAEO, we shall not speak of it. Definitely will need to get back to those two and beat them for good :)
Thank you for the suggestions!
If each of the Amnesia Fortnight seasons counted only as a single thing, I would just leave them as is, but since they affect my stats really significantly I think I’ll ask to get them removed (now that I know that’s possible) :)
[EDIT] Actually… I might keep these movies since removing them would affect my “All games progress” - they were on this list since the beginning and only didn’t sync for “Won on SteamGifts” list… It’s a mess… :O
But at least I’ll know in case anything unwanted gets added to my BLEAO library in the future :)
I adore Last Word a lot, and I think it goes far in redeeming the RPGmaker engine, showing that the GOOD shit is what you make, not what you make it in.
Winning all those giveaways in December is nuts! You’ve also got some real gems in your new games list.
Happy New Year and good luck in killing your backlog in 2019!
Thanks and good luck to you too! :)