January'23 overview

Hoarding more games while playing more games.... Is this my plan?

I got inspired by some of the “end of the year” posts here on BLAEO that slightly changed my attitude regarding how I treat my stats and how I feel about them. I was feeling bad to put games into “won’t play” list. I even were preferring to delete games I won’t play from my library instead of just putting them into the named list… That is, you know, kinda crazy… Any justification for such behavior is simply far-fetched.

There is no reason to force yourself to play games you don’t want to play (especially if they’re not gifts or wins), nor to force yourself to delete such games from your library (unless you are sure that it is complete peace of trash). Like, for example, old Sid Meier’s games. Some of them already were played outside of Steam, some of them landed into my library just because I bought Sid Meier’s bundles… Why should I feel bad for not wanting to play them or why should I want to delete them from my library? :) So from now on I will move such games to “won’t play” list and I won’t feel any discomfort because of it. Thus, for the first time since the start of monitoring, the percentage of games in the “won’t play” list has grown from 11% to 12% :) It really helped to lower the stress and make the backlog fighting more pleasant.

Back to monthly stats: January

Date	Games owned	Added this month	Never played (monthly change)	Beaten/Completed during month
January'23	346	+12	150 (+0)	12

Library has grown a lot in size again, not as bad as in December… But still +12 games is more than I planned. On a bright side: I actually managed to beat same amount of games. I also joined Play or Pay and started playing a really long game they choose for me - the Hollow Knight. I spent already about 32 hours in it in January - that is around 50% of all my actual monthly playtime. And it is not yet beaten. I hope PoP will continue provoking me to beat long games :)

Games highlights of January:

• Pumpkin Jack
  

  8.8 hours playtime

  25 of 33 achievements

• Blue Estate
  

  6.1 hours playtime

  11 of 27 achievements

• Contrast
  

  4.4 hours playtime

  20 of 22 achievements

• One Way: The Elevator
  

  2.2 hours playtime

  6 of 18 achievements

Pumpkin Jack: When PSP was a THING I spent a lot of time with MediEvil. Heck, last time I played it on my PSP last year! And you know, Pumpkin Jack is a great way to get alike experience in modern days. Game is not polished, there are some issues and bugs… But overall experience from it is good. Story is fun, level design is not bad at all, graphics is pleasant. My rating is 7/10 (read 6/10 if you don’t like or know what MediEvil is) and only if you got the game during sale or in a bundle (or for free). Even at -60% discount it is overpriced - it should be better polished to justify the price.

Blue Estate: Pure gem if you are into well-directed action, goofy humor and rail shooters. Short game sessions (up to 30 minutes in story mode and 3-10 minutes in arcade mode) makes game perfect for short brakes. 8/10 - grab it during next -75% sale :)

Contrast: The game is not very difficult, but pretty exciting. I would even call it meditative. Graphic and sound design immersed me very well inside the game. It was just nice to be there and wander around, looking around the corners. There are a lot of small things you can stumble upon, like Doctor Who’s TARDIS hidden around the corner or Darth Vader’s sword on the display in museum and similar small trifles. The world of the game in general is wonderful to my taste, a kind of fusion of stylized realism and surrealism. Very beautiful. I explored all the locations purely out of curiosity, which allowed me to collect all (except one) of the collectibles. It might sound strange, but the desire to explorer game world and look into every corner in Contrast is very close to the feeling and desire I experienced in Bioshock. The gameplay is very entertaining, you have to think in 3D and 2D simuntaniously. All the riddles are very simple - I didn’t need any tips or help to solve them. The game does not punish “wrong behavior” in any way - you can set up as many experiments as you like. I only once managed to break it so that I had to restart from the last save. Plot/story is OKeish and I can’t figure out what to say no to make any spoilers :) 7/10 - it wasn’t discounted for 2 years already, but if you will have a chance to grab a key at 5 USD or below - consider doing it )

One Way: The Elevator: Got it during 50% sale and it cost every penny. Very well made point and click quest (with a sad plot). My eyes were happy, the brain was resting. One screen - one puzzle. There is no need to run back and forth looking for clues and puzzle pieces. Really good game for one or two evenings. 8/10