Noble Gamer

August 2019 Progress Report

Seemed like I had somewhat less time to game this month and definitely encountered getting temporarily stuck more often than I expected, but it wasn’t any less enjoyable. :) This month reminded me that I have less patience for puzzle-type games because I get annoyed having to look up solutions when I can’t figure something out for quite a while, but unless the figuring-it-out part is super engaging I tend to not to take a long time to figure things out and instead go find a walkthrough video.

For September, I picked a mix of what seem to be quality games from my backlog, half of them SG wins. The only 3D game seems to be Aporia, which will be the first CryEngine game I think I’ve ever played. Will see if it makes my GTX 1060 cry and may pre-load most of it into my DimmDrive. I’m especially excited to play Into the Breach, which I was surprised to get in a trade for one of my Humble Monthly early reveals. Since I’m not a hardcore roguelite fan, I am optimistic that I will enjoy Into the Breach even more than FTL.

Also here’s a DARK giveaway (Ends Sept 5 @ 20:00 Eastern Time) and Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide (Ends Sept 10 @ 17:30 Eastern).

End of August stats:

643 games (+25)
74% never played (+1%)
9% unfinished (+0%, +1 game)
12% beaten (+0%, +3 games)
2% completed
4% won’t play
101% total (+1%, empirical proof my backlog is too big? lol)

In the upcoming month, I’ll remove some F2P games from my backlog that I don’t see myself playing anytime soon, which should bring down my game count a little.

Click a game’s bar to see its short review.

Games I Beat Mid-Month

    911 Operator

    911 Operator

    21 hours playtime

    I recommend the game on sale with all DLC if you who wants basic simulation of 911 calls and are ok with micromanaging location/dispatch of emergency vehicles. If you expect an RTS game or advanced simulation, you might have a bad time. I only used “Unique Stories” and custom cities mode since Unique Stories was recommended for a first playthrough and progresses through the different cities. It does some things well and others I wish it did better but nothing that breaks gameplay for me, on Hard difficulty. That doesn’t make me eager to play it much more.

    Evolvation

    Evolvation

    4 hours playtime

    Basic 6 DOF space fighter with a relatively dead multiplayer community but has decent bots plus thorough tutorials. I loved older 6 DOF games like Descent, but there's nothing to do other than basic pew pew here - Not even a campaign mode, hence why I marked this "beat" as a multiplayer only game. Would not recommend buying unless you have friends to play with who are really into that kind of game.

Game I Beat by End of Month

    Quantum Break

    Quantum Break

    17 hours playtime

    I finally beat the game spread out over a month, occasionally taking a break when I would get stuck on occasion. Overall, I really enjoyed the story and thought the third person action was decent. I had two minor disappointments with not encountering one potential type of enemy in Act 4 and I thought the very end was slightly lackluster, but overall still well done.
    I have two questions now: If I go to the Timeline and change a junction to watch the alternate show/video, does that wipe out all single player progress after that junction? Also, how much does changing junctions change gameplay outside of the show, if at all?

Games I Got Stuck On

    Road Redemption

    Road Redemption

    14 hours playtime

    Nails the Road Rage vibe and satisfying combat with good progression early to mid game. Roguelite fits okay, but in mid game to get enough XP per run to get meaningful unlocks requires lots of replay of very early levels. So I’ve labelled this as “Stuck” for now and playing other games instead. Procedural missions & tracks are okay, but dont add a lot to gameplay.

    When Ski Lifts Go Wrong

    When Ski Lifts Go Wrong

    14 hours playtime

    Definitely one of the more unique bridge building games available that I’ve enjoyed. I tried all 100 standard levels, but only completed 70-80 of the levels, and aced 40 of them.
    It not only has bridge type building, but also different kinds of ski lifts, in winter & summer. Being able to control the people for some levels totally changes the gameplay: Snowboarders, snowmobiles, bikes, BMX, etc.

Game I Started Playing

    Human: Fall Flat

    Human: Fall Flat

    16 hours playtime

    This physics puzzle-type platformer is walking a thin line between frustrating control and amusing gameplay. Even if you get great at controlling how you hold stuff, the camera views get awful sometimes when the human you control blocks view of what you are trying to grab. I’ve played through a couple single player levels (up to Castle), and hope to beat it before I try multiplayer which I’ve heard is hilarious. The hint system is usually helpful, but the hint things rarely pop up in the sections where I actually need them.

September 2019 Queue

ninglor03

Yay for completing QB! \o/
I don’t know about the first question. The second I can help though: It doesn’t rly change things. A bit, but noooooor rly? Mostly the videos rly. And in the last one Charlie might not be there, but the… ehm… security dude. I think. Well, it changes a bit rly, but it doesn’t matter in the big picture, yk?

Have fun with your games this month :)

Noble Gamer

Thanks - I did find that Carbine Rifle in Act 3 which definitely helped with the toughest enemies, but use of shield and powers seemed just as important.
I figured that the difference in gameplay between junction choices would be negligible.
I think I saw at least some of the shows have been ripped to Youtube, so maybe I’ll check there first since Steam’s show streams may be lower quality than the physical copies (like on consoles) that have the videos on-disc which are hopefully the ones ripped to Youtube. I liked the show part of the game, so maybe in October I’ll play Late Shift which is an interactive movie. Any other recommendations on interactive movie or FMV-heavy games?

ninglor03

I loved that weapon :]
Yeah, doesn’t really work out without powers.
Since I played it right away a second time on hard, I took all the different choices. Which was interesting, bc I did wonder about it too only to realize it works just as fine :D

Actually no. Sorry. This is the first one for me with interactive movie included. So far I always moved on, the second I realized it was something with real actors. I mean, I love when they use actors as model, but a pc game somehow has to be animated for me. No idea why, but yeah, it feels right for me. So when I realized this was a mix of both I was skeptic but it worked for me and I liked it. Probably bc they had some great guys in it, whom I liked from shows or movies. Certainly a plus point :D

RikkiUW

I loved Human: Fall Flat, though I get how it can be frustrating. Don’t try I Am Bread, it’s waay harder! I’d actually recommend doing multiplayer first. The levels are all the same so going from multiplayer where there’s two of you to solve puzzles to doing it yourself adds a challenge. I think if you do multiplayer last it wouldn’t be quite as good since you already know how to do all of the levels.

Noble Gamer

Good to know about HFF, I guess I was wrong that there’s multiplayer only levels. So I may try multiplayer sooner then.

I Am Bread definitely seems like QWOP which is a definite nope from me. lol @ their notice at the top of the page though:

Notice: You knead a controller to get a real rise out of the game.

Spamlynguist

Ooh Human: Fall Flat is a good one! I still need to beat the Aztec level myself.

Zeruel

911 Operator was a game that I really loved, honestly. Even with its noticeable shortcomings, I couldn’t help but feel happy that something like this now exists. Sure, there was “This is the Police” before it, but the drawn out story and the repetitive calls (with pretty random outcomes being tied to jokey choices), it just never really scratched that itch completely.

Quantum Break was a technical nightmare for me though. I was playing with a weaker PC though, so that explained a fair bit of it. Though, still, it had other issues too. Overall it was a decent story and it actually made me care about a few of the characters, so that’s a plus.

I have the same feelings with Road Redemption, but I started feeling them even sooner. Only an hour in and I’m already feeling like I’ve seen most of the game. And it’s not that impressive to me. Sad, since I actually really wanted the game and was excited to play it. Maybe I’ll continue with it though.

Noble Gamer

911 Operator was a game that I really loved, honestly.

I too enjoyed it despite the shortcomings, as I found it to be a semi-chill game (except for large scale disasters) that I could play while listening to podcasts & such.

Quantum Break was a technical nightmare for me though.

If you played it on your Previous PC listed on your profile, that doesn’t surprise me since it was well under min specs. Your current rig is comparable to mine and should run standard gameplay very well on High+ settings. Cinematics (which I think were realtime and not pre-rendered?) seemed locked at 30 fps for me - I presume this was to mitigate dropping any frames below 60.

I have the same feelings with Road Redemption, but I started feeling them even sooner.

Unlocks via XP seem to be a core part of the gameplay loop, so if the unlocks don’t really appeal to you or seem to make a difference, then the game is definitely going to run out of steam a lot sooner. Unlocks aside, I would’ve gotten more mileage out of it if the tracks themselves were procedural but it seemed only the non-boss enemies & scenarios were procedural.

Zeruel

If you played it on your Previous PC listed on your profile, that doesn’t surprise me since it was well under min specs.

Wasn’t even the framerate that bothered me. Mainly the fact that the game keeps in odd effects while making everything else look like a potato. Plus, mouse controls were appalling for me.

I was surprised that the game ran at 40-50fps at the lowest settings for me. :D