QUARTER BREAKDOWN
FEBRUARY
The Month of Grindy and Mundane Completions
ICE AGE SCRAT'S NUTTY ADVENTURE
Despite having a great start of the year, I feel that February could have started and stayed a lot better. I started Ice Age Scrat's Nutty Adventure which I won via Steamgifts, but to my surprise, it was one of the poorest platformer games I ever played. Completing it was more boring than I hoped for and despite being glad I completed it, I wish I wasted time playing other games from my backlog.
At the end of the day, I believe this game was solely dedicated towards children and/or players who are new to gaming as it offers simple and easy to do control, with overall little improvements until the end of the game.
Verdict: Bad
Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure falls short of its potential as a platformer inspired by similar games. Unfortunately, it lacks the enjoyable and engaging elements found in its counterparts. With repetitive gameplay, lack of creativity, and a simplistic approach, it fails to captivate. While it might appeal to newcomers to gaming or young children without much gaming experience, I cannot recommend it to a wider audience.
SKULL AND BONES
After considering something different I found out that Skull & Bones was finally released. Not being sure if I wanted to play this game and spend £50 on it, I quickly picked up the trial that offers you 8 hours to test out the game. By my surprise, the game isn't as bad as most people claim it is. Is it worth £50? No! Absolutely not, but it's not a bad pirate game. I have no intention to play it any time soon on the Ubisoft platform and will buy it on Steam when it launches with a proper discount. The game is gorgeous but lacks attention to details in dialogues and characters, which Ubisoft lost complete touch with that ever since Assassin's Creed Syndicate and other titles released during that period.
What I'm looking forward from this game is more content, the liberty to move freely on the ship at least, customization of ship members outside of their outfits, treasure hunting, and more quality of life improvements to make the title be worth £50 and be considered a quality AAA, because the AAAA is far-fetched.
Played on Ubisoft ConnectVerdict: Good
Skull and Bones has the potential to be a great pirate game. With an emphasis on combat and customization, this game could go toe to toe with Sea of Thieves if the developers would listen to their audience and provide quality-of-life improvements, gameplay elements, and more simulation/sandbox features.
CHAMPION OF ANDIA
I got this game for testing a few days before by a solo developer to see how the game was. Initially, it was a request to feature it on my YouTube channel, but I refused as I didn't find the game fit for what I am posting there. The game is rough on the edges and needs a lot of time in development to be considered finished. It has potential but lacks a fast-paced combat from the type of arena combat. It's very weighty and slow.
The game needs a lot more work for me to be able to fully review it. For a solo, beginner, I believe that it's admirable work. I can't review games the same was as when a team of experienced people are making a game or a large company the size of thousands with a well known publisher.
JUST CAUSE 2
Last game played in February and one of the most tedious and boring games to complete in all my few years of completionist. You're required to do mundane tasks over and over again, clearing bases, villages and towns/cities. It is a game that I wish it offered something more interesting on the story department, but that area fails pretty easily. The visuals are still something that I personally think holds up the game well. Animations can be a bit strange, but overall, not a bad looking game for it's time.
My biggest disappointment is that I did not complete this game 100% in February, despite leaving this game at 60% completion, the 15% grind took me more than half of month pushing myself through the struggle to get it all done, to no avail.
Verdict: Good
One of the best-looking games of its time and the largest open-world I've ever played. This game doesn't respect your time as a completionist. You're forced to grind 75% of the map in order to get this game completed. Although a fun game outside completion, it quickly becomes tedious and repetitive in clearing out the map.
Games Completed this Month
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Ice Age: Scrat's Nutty Adventure
Really nice-looking report. I bought Just Cause 2 way back in July 2013 when it hit 75% off and before I became a completionist. It was about my 86th game on Steam, before I discovered bundles. Fortunately, I didn’t play it as there’s no way I would have completed it. If I ever play it, it will be via family sharing from an alt so I don’t have to worry about achievements. :D
I believe achievements still trigger on the shared account. So you can’t escape achievements but just enjoy games as they are. Don’t worry about achievements. You don’t have to be a completionist. Gaming should be fun. I enjoy being a completionist!
Right– I just mean that they won’t register on my main if I play from an alt via family sharing. Low completion from my alt will not impact my achievement percentage on my main. So I can play Just Cause 2 on my alt without worrying about my main’s completion percentage. I don’t care about completion on my alt.
Cheers, thanks for the reply.
Oh no, I believe it still does. I have played some games via family sharing and achievements triggered on my account despite not owning it. Now I might understand you wrong, but they still work that way.
Oh yes– the achievements count on the alt’s account, but it doesn’t affect completion percentage on the main account where the game resides. When I play as my alt, I don’t worry about achievements (although I still like to get them, hehe).
Sometimes worrying less about achievements is more enjoyable than striving for completion. I am a completionist and I struggle with that urge to not complete games I play.
What a beautiful report! I also tested Skull & Bones in one of the betas a while back, and I completely agree with you. Not bad at all, but wouldn’t pay 50 bucks for it either, as it feels potentially very repetitive.
I’ll just wait until it launches on Steam and potentially play it with my wife again when it’s at least £25 or less.
Thank you very much for checking it! 😀
Yes, playing it with someone sounds like a much more fun way to enjoy it. Lucky you, who have a gamer wife! Enjoy 😀
Was about to think she will stop playing, but she came back to gaming, but games in moderation now, much better than before.