Bangledeschler

Nov 2022

This month, for the most part, was going fairly well. I was on track to beating a game a day on average and was able to keep up with newer releases. However, things did take a turn as I had left town for a week and decided to use my Steam Deck. As it turns out, playing games in offline mode not only does not unlock achievements, but the next time you sign in your playtime absolutely gets overwritten. So, my 7.9 hours of Ori is now rendered null despite beating it and collecting all collectibles. On top of this I made progress in some games that I had already beaten and now can not be unlocked without a fresh save… Seems a bit silly for a mobile device to not track and then verify with the Steam servers and achievements when back online. Thus, take this as a cautionary tale for any of those who plan to get a Steam Deck.
Other than that, good month, good food, and good progress.

    Bastion

    Bastion

    5 hours playtime

    7/10
    SuperGiant Games does four things well. Art, Story, Music, and Varying game genres. This game is no particular exception though it wasn’t quite to the same level that I know them for. The core gameplay is alright enough. Isometric gameplay across slowly revealed pathways trying to destroy the obstacles and enemies in your path while reclaiming crystals that may help recreate the world that has fallen to ruin. Getting to swap out two weapons is a great way to let the player play the way that is most comfortable. There is also a dodge and shield mechanic though I found myself forgetting about the latter.
    Recommend? Yes

    Bayonetta

    Bayonetta

    10 hours playtime

    8/10
    I remember absolutely being enthralled by this on release. DMC-like beat em’ up featuring a strong and seductive female lead while taking on angels using witchcraft and demonic power. It still very much retains that non-stop high tempo energy as it did for me back when I played it on initial release.
    Combat is fast paced, a plethora of combo variations and new weapons, as well as cosmetics to vary the game (though quite a grind to buy each). What separates this from other games in the genre is not just the visual appeal but Witch Time, a mechanic that allows you to take control of the battlefield. Simply dodge an enemies attack right before it would hit and not only do you get a score boost but time slows down for everyone else. You can now unleash devastating combos without the enemies being able to react. Additionally, getting enough magic power allows you to do torture attacks, which not only do massive damage nearly killing anything you target it with, but when defeating an enemy allows you to use their weapon until it breaks.
    One thing that did not particularly age well is the menu system. Selecting a previous/another chapter requires you to (from mission select) select menu > Select Chapter > then load into chapter. To make matters worse, it doesn’t actively show your score/rank on the chapter either, so getting a pure platinum on every chapter is an absolute painful slog. It is a relatively minor issue but annoying none the less. There was also one moment I had a bug where enemies did not spawn, and I had to take a death (ruining my score) in order to fix it.

    Recommend? Yes, the game looks and performs well on PC. It provides great high intensity combat between it’s mob and boss battles alike along with an interesting exciting story.

    Call of Juarez

    Call of Juarez

    7 hours playtime
    no achievements

    4/10
    FPS Western that has you take control of two opposing characters going towards one thing… The Call of Juarez. A name for a treasure hidden in the valley of Juarez. In one corner you have, Billy, a young misfit character accused of murdering his mother and step-father. He rarely fights and often requires stealth to survive. In the other corner is the Reverend, brother to the murdered Step-father chasing down Billy in order to seek righteous vengeance. He is a gun toting character who is all action including an ability to slow down time when drawing his weapon. The back and forth between playing both sides in this cat and mouse chase was interesting to say the least. It’s only a shame that it performs rather poorly. Movements and making jumps can be fairly iffy, encounters can go sour with haste, and the slowdown ability has your reticles come from the sides which is more often than not inopportune. Though I like that there is a difference in gameplay, the stealth sections absolutely suck as very often enemies will see you at the slightest peek. Even in total darkness it doesn’t appear to work as intended. As for combat, there is a bit of an odd durability system that requires you to switch out weapons frequently less they misfire or blow up.

    Recommend? There’s a lot of neat concepts, but it is held back by it’s looks and malfunctioning mechanics. It would be interesting to see this game done in modern times where stealth is a little more consistent.

    Dead Island Definitive Edition

    Dead Island Definitive Edition

    21 hours playtime

    Steam Deck
    4/10
    This game sets up a lot of what an open world zombie game could be but does not particularly do well in anything it sets out for. Something akin to Left 4 Dead, you and up to three other players must survive on an infected island while looking for an escape. Depending on the character you pick will determine your character weapon proficiency and skill tree. Some basic skills help out early on, but quite a few late game perks just don’t feel worth the investment. Unlike a lot of zombie games, most of your combat is done via melee. These weapons you use break, however, so you must be sure to pick up scaled loot items and modify them to last and do better damage. Modifications don’t have much visual variation amongst the types and hardly add much effect.
    Most mid to late game battles end in much death due to the fact that most basic zombies can charge and do 75% of your health and with med kits being far too scarce you will have to rely on capped health regen despite another zombie coming in for a follow up. This makes the 2nd half of the game an incredible and unexciting slog and that doesn’t include the monotonous mainline quests and story.
    The game is fundamentally a collection of fetch quests, back-to-back-to-back. Even between the main quests you have you do fairly similar quests once you reach each settlement. Find settlement, go check on person outside settlement, go collect food and resources for settlement, etc. and onto the next one. The story itself has very little engagement and towards the end events just sort of happen with no build up.

    Recommend? Honestly, no. The only reason I’d recommend this is to build up a character to import to Riptide. It simply just does too much of the same thing without really offering any long-term excitement or enjoyablity.

    No More Heroes

    No More Heroes

    16 hours playtime

    8/10
    Achievements Broken
    Heard Robert Atkin Downs voice and immediately felt the urge to play No More Heroes again. Luckily, if not dumbly, I also owned the Steam version. Since I had already reviewed this game in the past I will more focus on the port itself.
    For the most part, the port is pretty solid. It is basically just No More Heroes but on PC. Yet, in there lies the problem. It shouldn’t just be the same. It should absolutely capitalize on the potential of greater hardware than the Wii. I’m not saying anything crazy, but get the draw distance to be more than 5 feet from my character, implement some quick quality of life changes to going around town or accepting missions, just a little extra oomph to make an already excellent game to take the extra mile. Now, there is an actual issue with the game and it is that it doesn’t always properly display the correct button prompts for the whole game. It appears that it almost uses the original Wii version button prompt even though this seems to be the Switch port… port. This can mislead players to playing wrong and I couldn’t figure out how to use some of my unlocked special moves and even basic moves I taught myself. The last issue is unavoidable, and simply put it just doesn’t quite the same charm as it did with motion controls and the Wii remote speaker. It just isn’t the same when you can’t inappropriately shake your controller to charge your beam sword or hold the controller to your ear like a cellular phone when receiving a call.
    Still, the game is solid and it performs fairly well.

    Recommend? Yes. If this is the only way you can access this game, yes, absolutely, without a doubt.

    Obscure 2

    Obscure 2

    5 hours playtime

    4/10
    Sequel to the co-op survival horror taking much from 90’s movie The Faculty. Taking place after the good ending, you see a lot of returning faces, but new and familiar threats slowly consume the town. Unlike the previous game, deaths are fairly scripted and the game has two ending which is only decided in the final battle. Between that and rather odd story choices, the game just lacks a lot of the interesting the appeal the first game had to offer. Much like the original, it is entirely recommended to have a co-op partner remote play in as the AI is very likely to do not much while receiving much damage. I did have some issue getting remote play to work on a returning session, but that may be an issue with remote play itself rather than the game.

    Recommend? Frankly, you can pass. Better with a friend.

    Ori and the Blind Forest

    Ori and the Blind Forest

    4 minutes playtime

    Steam Deck
    7/10
    So, you may look at this and think, “Well he didn’t play this at all.” But in fact, I was ROBBED by playing offline on Steam Deck not being aware that none of my time or achievements (or playtime) would account for anything.
    There didn’t seem to be much of a difference from the Definitive Edition other than maybe smoother controls. So, to make it straight forward… this is a simplified and smaller Metroid Vania but overall solid.

    Recommend? Yes

    Princess Remedy In A Heap of Trouble

    Princess Remedy In A Heap of Trouble

    2 hours playtime
    no achievements

    6/10
    Retro style game that has you go around and healing people by clearing mini bullet hell levels. Once cleared, the person is happy and talking with them again gives you the option to date. Dating is quite what you expect as it mostly means they will follow you and give you a different special ability. Of course, you can only date one person so there is no way to maximize abilities. It can be annoying to relocate your ideal date as you will have to walk all the way back to where you found them should you realize they were the one. (Edit: Multiple companions can have the same ability but it is easy to forget who has what). Clearing each minigame will give you stat ups, most importantly health, which are required to access the next boss which opens the path way to the new area. Rinse and repeat until you defeat the sickest of them all. The game overall is pretty easy, so much so that with the heal ability you can basically drown the levels in your own blood and come out victorious. Some levels I couldn’t even imagine not just healing through it all. A minor dislike of this game is that I was not a fan of the big text/font they used and it caused me to kind of zone out during conversations. I also wish the game did a better job of explaining the specials each companion can give you.

    Best Boy(?): Apathetic Frog
    Best Girl: Frallan (Heal)
    Recommend? Yeah, not crazy good but well enough.

    Tetrobot and Co.

    Tetrobot and Co.

    12 hours playtime

    7/10
    A fairly standard puzzle game that does well in creating a mechanic for each sub-world and teaching you through suggestive environments and patterns. Though, it is not enough to simply get through each sublevel, but one must try to collect all three collectibles per level to unlock future worlds. Though the game does offer a nice range and variety of mechanics, not all are particularly explained well, and you can find yourself getting “soft-locked”. Luckily, the developer also introduced a rewind button that puts you in your previous states until you feel you are in a better spot. The rewind can sometimes be a little bugged in that some actions you rewind past still follow through despite not actually enacting them yourself (i.e. a block falling from an locked position that was unlocked before you did the rewind).

    Recommend? Yes, fun with a simplistic aesthetic but complex mechanics.

    There Was a Caveman

    There Was a Caveman

    2 hours playtime

    3/10
    A prehistoric platformer that has one lonely caveman in search of women (or may just a specific woman? Not really sure to be honest). The platforming is alright while the combat can be a little rough at times. You can pick up tools that assist via either attacking or assisting with platforms. Though once picking up a new tool the other one is just overwritten, and I feel this could put someone in the state of a soft lock. Most of the bosses are okay, I guess, but again it often feels like a tossup whether the game will put you in a situation where you will take a hit. What really doesn’t work for this game is that you can collect bones to trade for items/health up. Unfortunately, the items and not even the health up ever carry over death, level transition, or loading the game. So, it often feels like bothering with these powerups are seldom worth it as most of the time you will likely insta-die from a pit of sorts.

    Recommend? It’s not the worst but has no real draw to it so definitely a skip.

    They Bleed Pixels

    They Bleed Pixels

    8 hours playtime

    6/10
    Difficult action platformer similar to that of Meatboy but with a Lovecraftian flare. So, expect to die quite a bit. To ensure you don’t go crazy and restart the level, you can create checkpoints when you collect enough energy. The only stipulation is that you must be in a safe area. The combat could use a little work, but it has nothing to do with the combos itself. Rather the fact that various actions all revolve around one button caused me frequent deaths due to performing the wrong action. There are several other buttons on the controller that are just not being used and it is a shame that the game just doesn’t utilize them for things like dashes and uppercuts.
    Even after finishing the main game there are several mini level packs with new challenges, color pallets and themes.

    Recommend? Yes. Though it can be frustrating due to both difficulty and simplistic button system but a nice challenge nonetheless.

    Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel

    Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel

    36 hours playtime

    9/10
    Voted for “Best Game You Suck At”
    Kind of surprised I had not marked this “Beaten” earlier. Well, unlike Duel Links this follows a lot more closely to the the gameplay of the TCG without any added mechanics unique to the game. The game has two modes. PVP which can either by ranked or casual and a solo mode. Solo mode mostly revolves around various sections to teach you about the game. Some are more straightforward and teach you the base rules and mechanics while others focus on using different archetypes. As an added bonus, the sections focused on archetypes not only include sub-duels to practice with a deck provided but also have intermittent moments to give some lore behind these archetypes. You not only get to learn during solo mode, but completing out sections and beating them with both the deck provided and any customized deck give you various rewards such as in-game currency, cards, decks, aesthetics, etc. There is a battle pass system, but requires no money unless chosen to do so and there is a shop to spend in game currency as well which is where it can feel a little divisive. There are a very limited number of available card packs to buy at any time. However, completing sections in solo, opening card packs, and events can give you a secret card pack token. This makes a new card pack depending on the token available for a limited time and you can buy as many packs as you want. So, the game sort of suggests you save up your gems and spend them all at once to kind of snowball a bunch of different packs and/or invest heavily into one/multiple of the secret packs.

    Recommend? Honestly, the best way to play modern Yu-Gi-Oh, yes.

    A Kiss For The Petals - Remembering How We Met

    A Kiss For The Petals - Remembering How We Met

    2 hours playtime

    5/10
    Yuri VN with a quite predetermined love interest and no choices throughout. The game supposedly stems off another series, but doesn’t really seem to reference anything or require background knowledge. The game feels a bit tropey as you have a slacker genius and a uptight class president with some fairly classic setups. The voice acting is decent, but feels like something you’d hear in just about your average VN/anime i.e. it has nothing to really call it’s own style per se. It also seems to only be in the Japanese native language. Overall it’s a fairly decent, if not average, VN.

    Recommend? Don’t expect anything exciting, it is a fairly standard romance VN, but it’s nice to have something so simple once in a while. Yes.

    Batman: The Enemy Within - The Telltale Series

    Batman: The Enemy Within - The Telltale Series

    9 hours playtime

    6/10
    Continuing from the events and choices from the first Batman Telltale game you must face off against a new threat and gallery of Batman’s rogue villains. It does a lot of the same of the first game where you do make choices like a standard TT game, but there are still moments of piecing together information (though it felt a little more simplistic) and choosing how to engage mid combat. I gotta say, in comparison, this game is a bit of a letdown compared to the first. Part of it is that we are seeing the continuation of a lot of previous choices not mean too much or go in weird ways. As well, some of the reimagination of certain characters just felt a little bit too off. Though I like given the chance to try and see how things pan out with different decisions, it is really hard to break away from the Batman mentality of doing things. Definitely in the last episode or two the writing and story kind of just go downhill. I understand what they are trying to setup, but it really just was not a satisfying adventure especially since the first did such a great job creating more original story. In that same vein, seeing a lot more of Batman’s classic villains is refreshing. There are also more than a few moments of dialogue that just feel weird or inappropriate for the situation.

    Recommend? It’s not as good as the first, but it does okay enough.

    Japanese School Life

    Japanese School Life

    4 hours playtime

    8/10
    A VN that has a foreign boy study abroad in Japan. Not only does he befriend to girls in his class but they teach him much about Japan life and culture. I’ll admit, I did not expect the game to teach much and be mostly a dating VN. Yet, it’s almost the opposite. The game does a surprisingly well job covering a lot of different topics, events, history, food, etc. and has pretty much a dismissible romance route that feels added just because. Not only do they cover a wide variety and multitude of Japan culture but the developers even have key words highlighted and hovering over them often provides information on this. It is not as consistent as I would like. Not all words that seemed important were highlighted, and not all highlighted words had a hover explanation. Usually those hover free words were explained shortly after, but it still would have had been nice for consistency sake.
    The two girls do provide a nice variation in personality and the voice acting is genuinely great. As stated before, there is technically a romance route but it pretty much amounts to nothing at all. The art is generally bright and crisp, and during certain events switches up to a little bit more simplified but cute chibi version often during Japanese event situations. Though, if you got through the game once and felt you forgot some material but need an extra excuse, you can replay the game with the girls replaced with catgirl variations if you so chose. Dialogue doesn’t change, but their visuals across all panels get ears and a tail.

    Recommend? Yes. A very informative experience on Japanese culture and history but still cute and fun to keep the overall interest throughout.

    Kathy Rain

    Kathy Rain

    5 hours playtime

    7/10
    Point-and-Click adventure starring a rebellious youth who wants to unravel the mystery of her grandpa’s recent death. Animations and art are both smooth and vibrant while maintain the necessary tone. Interactions are not only fairly believable but offer a plethora of intrigue and humorous moments. The voice acting is also quite well done. Most solutions to various puzzles are fairly logical. Only a couple of moments left me needing a guide hint to get me going due to some not so obvious solutions/wording in the puzzle.

    Recommend? Yes. Enjoyable and fun adventure.

    Learn Japanese To Survive - Hiragana Battle

    Learn Japanese To Survive - Hiragana Battle

    5 hours playtime
    no achievements

    3/10
    An okay but maybe excessive way to learn recognize and possibly pronounce various letters of the Japanese language. This JRPG does not have you face normal enemies, but instead hiragana letters where the only way to defeat them is to assign the correct English pronunciation to said enemy. One must think tactfully as saying the wrong answer will not only do no damage but leaves the enemy a chance to attack. The game does well to slowly teach you this alphabet, but the repetition of random battles can get exhausting. This is especially true if you are already familiar with all the material.
    What this game doesn’t do very well is teach you the act of putting sentences together and practicing words. Eventually you will slowly get some words and maybe some particles, but you really won’t ever use them and thus without practice they serve no use. Not to mention since you are mostly selecting the words, you aren’t getting very good practice in actually speaking said words and the game only does a text to speech for the short lessons. Each letter stays at it’s particular level, so even if they do surprise you with an early lesson late game, it serves no use in dealing with it compared to the most recent work. The story is kind of weird and frankly drags on a bit.
    All in all, it’s not a terrible way to get some of the basics, but I definitely recommend signing up for a class or some sort of reputable app to learn this language.

    Recommend? I appreciate the effort in creating another form to learning a language, but I don’t believe it offers enough to really set someone up for learning Japanese/Hiragana. Not to mention the battles can get very tiresome and excessive.

    Resident Evil Re:Verse

    Resident Evil Re:Verse

    5 hours playtime

    2/10
    It is very hard to believe that even with a year delay, this game has little to no content. A small cast of characters, only TWO maps on launch, and one game mode (Free-For-All to boot). It’s not a terrible idea in itself, but there simply needs to be more than what they offer. The characters themselves feel wildly unbalanced as Jill Valentine is just a literally better HUNK. There is a neat(?) mutation on death mechanic that though you will receive less points per kill/assist you get to play some of the most notorious monsters. Unfortunately, this too has slip ups as each monster is randomized per infection tier you have and with the current state of stunlock it feels as if tier 1 monsters have the greatest advantage over anything else. Power weapons can be okay, but rarely work out, and the greatest strategy one can have is to wait on the side lines and then clean up with kill steals. It’s a nice chaos for the first few hours but grows old fast.

    Recommend? No. Even with the updates this game fails to do anything for a genuine Resident Evil multiplayer experience.

    Side Note: Now with this and my dislike of the progression/unbalanced nature of REsistance, NEObard Games have not given me much faith in what they plan to do with Silent Hill f. (Also why can’t they just do a co-op campaign experience like Outbreak instead of these PvP games. Stop trying to compete with COD/Apex/Etc.)

    The Novelist

    The Novelist

    2 hours playtime
    no achievements

    5/10
    Ever see the Shining (neither have I) but it’s kind of like that but more… friendly(?) You play a spirit of sorts haunting a getaway location a family rents for the season. A father/husband, writer with writer’s block, a mother/wife, wants to pursue her art career but lacks support, and a son (having trouble with school, friends, and wants to spend time with family). Your goal is each day you have to find out what each person aspires by reading notes and searching memories and then decide which one will actually get to proceed with said aspiration for that time. You only get to choose one with the exception that you can make a secondary compromise if you find another person’s goal and choose theirs during the night before you whisper your influence. What’s really important is you do not get seen. You can avoid sight by possessing light objects (assuming they are on) and teleporting around with any source in sight. Being found will frighten the individual and ruin your chance to find their goals. I do wish the game would tell you that the final day does not allow for compromise as it does not suggest anything else in anyway.

    Recommend? It’s alright, but didn’t peak my interest.

    The Tiny Bang Story

    The Tiny Bang Story

    3 hours playtime
    no achievements

    6/10
    Hidden Object Game that requires a keen eye to find literal puzzle pieces throughout while also finding key objects to progress the area. The music was nice enough that I didn’t notice it repeating too much even when I was stuck. However, the game does get confusing in some areas and some puzzles are not explained well at all. The supposed hint system didn’t seem to tell me anything.
    Recommend? It’s decent enough, probably for those that are really into this sort of thing.

    Deathgarden: BLOODHARVEST

    Deathgarden: BLOODHARVEST

    1 minute playtime

    NA/10
    Not sure if I should have this here or beaten as it is literally unplayable as a multiplayer only game that has been shutdown. I have never played a match, but it isn’t as if I have the option either. I’ll seesaw this for a while until I decide though it will always be uncomplete-able as there seem to be achievements. Sad.
    Nothing to recommend.

    ENDLESS™ Legend

    ENDLESS™ Legend

    5 hours playtime

    2/10
    Unfortunately, when I realized I just am not capable of beating a Civ game, this was already in my library. I tried though, I gave it everything I had and even played several matches on Easy. Hundreds of turns in and I lose every time. To summarize, this is a fantasy Civilizations game (turn based strategy game) that requires you to plan research, map coverage, units, etc. Several factions with various abilities perks/cons, as well as generated maps with varying sizes, rules, etc. Something that seems to set itself apart is that battles are not necessarily automated. Instead, it turns into turn based combat. You can have it auto battle, but it doesn’t seem to always be smart. This can slow the game down dramatically. I do wish I could be good enough to actually clear these games, but it is so much of a time sink just to lose horribly and realize in the end game stats that it has been that way for a while.

    Recommend? I cannot recommend this, but it really just isn’t for me.

Bayonetta 3
Nintendo Switch
6.5/10
Long awaited have I waited for this, and it was an interesting experience nonetheless. We get an entirely new look to Bayonetta and a mysterious danger on a multiverse scale. Much of the core combat is the same but now have added mechanics surrounding your newfound ability to freely summon and control demons at will. Though a combo into demons is fairly fluid, the actual summoning of demons can be a bit awkward and clunky. It just really slows down the fast paced combat the Bayo series is known for. Weapon swapping is also simplified, so unfortunately you can only equip one weapon per loadout rather than one for hands and the other for feet.
In addition to Bayo, we now get a spunky new character to play Viola. A bit of a character who wields a katana that can be thrown to summon her personal demon Cheshire. She plays a bit differently relying on parries and varying close quarters combat with her autonomous demon summon. If you’re familiar with Devil May Cry, she is very much the Nero of the cast. Throughout the game there is a much more experimental feel to the game as you get anything from side scrollers, kaiju brawlers, and even a rhythm section. It’s all neat and cool to see new things happening, but it isn’t quite a smooth transition. It all could use some ironing out.
The story rides pretty alright for the most part… right before it all falls apart at the final stretch. The last few levels feel incredibly rushed with an unsatisfying boss battle that doesn’t quite reach the infiniton impact the last two had. Though not all choices were bad, the final events just didn’t make much sense and leaves much to be desired. They may be setting up the next game, but that does not require the ending of this game to just be so lackluster.

Recommend? Yes, though the ending is… well not great, the game itself is. Only wish that the ending was better and it had much more varying costumes available.

Pokémon Scarlet
Nintendo Switch
6/10
Despite the performance issues this was probably one of the best Pokémon games in quite some time. The game is much more free roam where you can explore just about any area, go to any gym/story section, and find most Pokémon roaming in the wild. They only needed to add just one more thing to make that truly work and that is a scaling system. As it is all gyms and Pokémon in each area are locked to levels. I would have much liked a system that at least scaled the gyms depending on either your level or the number of badges you have gotten at the time you challenge them. Going down each story path shows just how great a Pokémon story can be put together with Team Star having a wonderful background, path to Elite Four giving the standard challenge, and the titan battles giving a bonding experience with not only your Pokémon but others with theirs.
Now to the real bad. As many already know this game performs quite terrible with low frames per second past 2 meters of your character, seeing through environments, Pokémon appearing and phasing through peculiar places, etc. Honestly, it wasn’t too terrible of an experience as a PC gamer who deals with ports after ports. The biggest issue for me was the horrendous menu UI. Maps and Pokédex have been separated into their own submenu and not integrated through the main menu at all. Visually the Pokédex is better but navigating that, the map, and the box is not easy nor has great accessibility. This is such a shame has Arceus had quite a few good implementations including things like moving massive amounts of Pokémon around in the box at once.
Recommend? Genuinely, yes. With better performance the game co

devonrv

It can be annoying to relocate your ideal date as you will have to walk all the way back to where you found them should you realize they were the one.

But the only point of dates in that game is your subweapon, and those get repeated across multiple NPCs throughout the game, meaning you DON’T have to go all the way back to get the one you want.

Bangledeschler

True enough, but by the time I did try out a new subweapon, I wanted to switch back to heal and the only person I remembered having it was the first individual. I understand most may not run into this issue and realize as much, but it was the case for me.

I did edit in that info though, thanks.

Zelrune

“This is probably the best pokemon game in quite some time.” Rating is 6/10; oof.
I’m a bit disappointed with it though, because it exists on the same console as Breath of the Wild so they don’t have the excuse that their graphics are that bad because of restrictions. I’ve seen better from games from 2011! Sooo many bugs.

Anyhow, congratulations on all of your assassinations! You’ve been busy!!! I heard about the achievement troubles from somewhere else, but I’ll still try to win a deck, even if I end up giving it away for christmas. How was Ori? I keep intending to play it but I tried once and died a ton on the first platforming section; so I just kinda, set it down and never picked it back up.

Bangledeschler
Rating is 6/10; oof.

Really though, the bugs and performance issues are the only thing really holding it back. Frankly, I didn’t mind the graphics too much… though the sandwiches ending up as PNGs that your character pretends to eat does boggle my mind still. Yet, it was a great adventure and some of the best new Pokémon introduced in some time.

Thank you kindly. I wish you best of luck on securing a deck. As long as you are online it is a nice way to play a lot of games. Even if it is from my bed 5 feet away from the computer usually…

Ori is solid. Not great, but good. It’s a bit easy/simple and small for a metroidvania so I was left wanting a bit more of a challenge but I think it’s good for a lot of those newer to the genre. I do think it can feel a bit clunky at times, but otherwise everything feels fairly ironed out. I wish you luck on your next attempt at it. Otherwise, I might recommend some better in the genre if you are still interested in that generally. Hollow Knight is a great one, for instance.

aquatorrent

As it turns out, playing games in offline mode not only does not unlock achievements

Afaik it depends on the game. I used to be on metered connection so i only got online whenever i finished a game. The ones that work will have the achievements unlocked automatically. I think it happens when i played hacknet. It’s not recommended to do it if you care about achievement hunting in tracker sites tho since you can get flagged for cheating - the timestamp for achievement unlocks will be the same

Bangledeschler

I know in past, on my computer, I had unlocked achievements while offline. It just seems weird that all the games I happened to play on my SteamDeck offline did not. I understand it can be exploited in offline, but at the same time it is kind of the whole point of Steam Deck is to be mobile with/without internet. Not to mention Steam cards/Steam Achievements are such a basic part of modern gaming.

C’est la vie, I suppose.

aquatorrent

Now im curious whether it is just steam deck thing or steam offline thing, hahah.
You still need to grind for cards even if you spent 100h on a game offline though, but i kinda agree that they should make achievements work when you played it offline. Now im not sure if i could play my steam games if i have to go offline - i dont want to replay a game twice just because the achievement wont unlock.

Bangledeschler

Yeah, some part of my wants me to believe it is a Steam Deck issue and thus could be fixed. Especially since several other handhelds and consoles in past have been able to relay offline achievements (PS Vita for example would sync that information).
Yeah, cards I understand, but still would like my offline playtime to reflect my time with the game.

Now im not sure if i could play my steam games if i have to go offline

Glad I could instill the fear of this into you as well. >:) Trust me, I certainly feel that way now after what happened.