Progress Report #4: August 2023
Monthly tally - Backlog: 27, Yekhus: 1
Getting lots of new games into my collection, mostly (as you can see) from weekly freebies and such. Really only deliberately purchased two, and one of them only because of a ridiculous -85% sale. And Book of Hours, because of a launch offer, and because I want to play it right away as soon as I am done with The Hex.
But I feel satisfied anyway, because I beat an awesome boss of a game, in Desperados III. Loved it so much that I'm still replaying it to try to complete all it's badges, achievements, etc. I'm happy to slow down my backlog assassination when I run into an awesome game like this, that deserves extra time and dedication.
Completed or Beaten (1)
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Desperados III
Also Played (2)
I'm a big Monkey Island fan, so I had to spend a couple of hours on the first episode of the Monkey Island SoT crossover. Will be doing this every month while new episodes get released. I already have the second one lined up, for any day now.
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Sea of Thieves
many hours playtime
16 of 16 achievements (The Legend of Monkey Island)
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The Hex
Beaten Demos (7)
Spent a few days trying out several demos I had my eye on. A couple of those games have made it into my cursed wishlist, the hatchery of future backlog demons...
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Detroit: Become Human
0.7 hours playtime
No achievements
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Alone in the Dark Prologue
0.3 hours playtime
No achievements
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Chicken Police - Paint it RED!
1 hour playtime
No achievements
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The Council - Episode 1
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Unusual Findings
0.5 hours playtime
No achievements
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Nadir: Prologue
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The Tartarus Key
2.7 hours playtime
No achievements
Added to collection (Steam) (12)
- Roadwarden (SteamGifts)
- Unity of Command (freebie)
- A Short Hike (bundle)
- Assemble With Care (bundle)
- Disfigure (freebie)
- Book of Hours
- Meow Express (freebie)
- I'm Not a Monster: First Contact (IG Giveaway)
- Into the Pit (bundle)
- Lighthouse Keeper (bundle)
- Painkiller: Recurring Evil (IG Giveaway)
- The Shrouded Isle
Added to collection (GOG) (2)
- Quake 4 (pass giveaway)
- Hero of the Kingdom II (freebie)
Added to collection (Epic) (5)
- Bloons TD 6 (freebie)
- Farming Simulator 19 (pass giveaway)
- Black Book (freebie)
- Dodo Peak (freebie)
- Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak (freebie)
Added to collection (Other) (8)
- Run! Gandpa! Run! (freebie)
- Soul Valley (freebie)
- Blade Assault (pass giveaway)
- Super Blue Boy Planet (freebie)
- Star Wars: the force Unleashed II (pass giveaway)
- Foretales (pass giveaway)
- Gravity Den (freebie)
- Red Risk (freebie)
Congrats on your assassination!
I see you added A Short Hike, absolutely lovely game, they did an update and I really couldn’t help but start it over - and finish it- again. I saw the sea of thieves update! I’m not a big fan of multiplayer, and that game definitely feels like something you can’t play solo; but I watched a group of youtubers called outsidexbox play through it and I genuinely liked that stream!
Best of luck to your September!
Thank you!
Yes, A Short Hike had been on my radar, since I heard about it only about a month ago. So I had to jump on the occasion, and am planning to play it very soon.
I did binge quite a bit on SoT, a couple of years ago. But granted, it was with friends, which is a lot more fun and how it’s really meant to be played. You CAN play it solo though, but it’s not quite the same thing. Although, ironically, this first part of the Monkey Island Tall Tale is actually much better for solo than group play. It feels more like a classic adventure game - although a very light one - where I better enjoyed the conversations and puzzles at my own pace. TBH, the main pleasure of playing this Monkey Island TT, was to explore bits of Melee Island in first person 3D. Was like a nice, fresh, revisiting of an old familiar place.
By the way Trent, I totally get what you say in your profile, about achievements pushing you to play games in strange ways. I try to ignore them somewhat, and only mind them after I finish a main campaign or story in a game, and feel like I want to replay it. I wrote a review of Desperados III for SG Magazine, and mentioned that, one thing I appreciate about it, on the topic of achievements, is that it doesn’t show you the badges (that is internal challenges or achievements) for each mission, until you’ve played through it successfully once. That way, the first playthrough can be more “pure” and spontaneous.
Thank you for the write-up. Nice work.
I’ve played maybe a little more than half of Detroit: Become Human on my alt and I’ve really enjoyed it. Graphically it’s just fantastic and I really like the story and (most of) the gameplay.
And thank you so much more for commenting, and making me feel seen!
The demo for Detroit was really intriguing. The interactive story-telling system, combined with the themes it explore, looked like it had a lot of potential. Although one thing that makes me doubt whether I’d go for the whole game, was the sense that I had a hard time making choices and anticipating what their impact might be… it might just be my inexperience, but it all seemed very based on trial and error. And repetition seemed a bit tedious, since it required replaying through slow, long sequences I had already been through.
It does happen from time to time– you answer one way and the response comes out not at all how you wanted it to. I’ve played a number of games that can have that same issue. There are enough checkpoints, though, that if you simply return to the main menu immediately, you don’t lose much progress.
And if you don’t like your outcome in a given chapter, you can start it all over with no consequences. That’s also a way to cheese multiple achievements in one playthrough…get the achievement, then restart the chapter and get a mutually exclusive one.