August Roundup
A gust of wind
Beaten in August 5 games
Another of my short puzzle games I picked up in the steam sale. This one is particularly short as well. Simple enough concept, just move through all the squares to reach the end. It has some nice twists as you go along, but none of the puzzles were particularly challenging and it was pretty forgettable.
I played the original game last year, and must say I didn’t really get why people were so excited about the series. It felt like a very grindy attempt at blending RPG and shooting and it felt a bit like I would rather be playing one or the other. But then I started playing this one through with my brother and his fiance. And it was such an improvement. The characters were so much more fleshed out, the humour was great and both the gunplay and skill trees felt much better. I did my main playthrough with them as Zer0 built as a glass cannon. But I also respecced and tried as other builds, and they all felt very different.
Mercifully the achievements were made a lot less grindy with the release of the fight for sanctuary DLC as I could start a new level 30 character and get the other character specific achievements a lot easier.
The worst one is of course the level 1 challenges achievement, and the stupid Jimmy robot one. I farmed 2 chests, loading and reloading about 100 times before finally meeting the little guy.
Anyway, it felt good to finish such a long game and I’ll certainly look forward to playing Borderlands 3 some time after it releases next year.
Looking for games to play with my younger son, I installed a bunch of co-op, local MP games. This one apparently resonated with him the most as we were forced to play it every night for about 3 weeks. Look it’s fun enough for a while, but there’s no progression or unlocks or anything to motivate continued play. I had to remember to pull my punches a bit otherwise he would get frustrated. So he thinks his really good at this game at my expense. But hey some things are worth more than being the best.
Another of the short puzzle games of course. This one takes the concept of knights moving on a chess board as the basis for a whole game of puzzles. It has a theoretically endless mode using the daily levels. But being as it’s pretty one note, I don’t imagine there are many people who would sit and play the game forever. Still it’s not unpleasant to play and a good ‘coffee time’ game.
I have always enjoyed the sniper elite series, and I’m glad we seem to have reach the point in the series where our technology finally allows the promise of the earlier games to come to completion. In the earlier games, the lack of hugely open areas pointed to the limitation of the gaming consoles to load more than so many enemies at a time. And so there were only a few ‘fixed’ opportunities for really impressive shots. But finally here, we have maps where just about all the enemies can be loaded in and so the maps can open up to much more impressive landscapes. So on many of the maps you can set up camp on a high tower and sit just marking and picking off enemies for ages before needing to move. Great fun!
Of course it has a few rather tough achievements to earn as well. Thankfully I had a buddy to help me out with the co-op missions. Then for the hardest mode, ‘no save’ challenge, I had a few false starts, try to be hidden, as is my normal play style, before I realised it was more efficient to find a good spot, and make a racket, then let the enemies come to me. Turn it into a more conventional shooter. Once they were all dead, the objectives became a lot easier.
Anyway, the series continues to impress, and I will look forward to the 5th one when it comes out.
So a little less progress this month. But there's a good reason. I spent a lot of time playing 'big' games. Asides from borderlands 2 and Sniper Elite 4, I also 'beat' Assassin's creed origins, Deus Ex mankind and spent a lot of time playing Borderlands: the Pre-sequel. So that was where most of my evening game time was going. I also started a whole bunch of games with my sons. I'm not sure if I'll ever finish all of them, and they dragged me down in the completion ratio, but we found some good ones to play, so I guess that was a win.
My progress towards my year goals is still on track, although a slower month meant I erased the 'buffer' I had built up. But I will no doubt have some busier months at the end of the year, as my work slows down and I take leave
Other stats
Achievements Gained 264Most difficult (according to TSA) 'The Collector' in Sniper Elite 4
Games added 0
Number of different games played20
Achievement streak 1224 days
Average Game completion 75%
Total number of completed games 421
Games completed in 2019 60
I played the original game last year, and must say I didn’t really get why people were so excited about the series. It felt like a very grindy attempt at blending RPG and shooting and it felt a bit like I would rather be playing one or the other.
To be perfectly honest that’s me as well. Not to mention I got my fix of “FPS Diablo” with Hellgate: London, for good or ill. I still don’t get how Borderlands apparently became a household name for many and BL3 is now hyped to high heaven. Maybe I also have to get around to playing the sequel.
Yeah I think it definitely clicked a lot better than the first game. The pre-sequel is quite boring as well, so I’d be curious as to where borderlands 3 is going to sit on the scale. Of course, even if it’s good I’m still going to wait a few years and get it with the season pass, because they sure know how to milk the DLC. I’d say it’s still a long way from being my favourite series ever, but it’s definitely more on my radar now.
Sounds likely. I mean, at least their DLC is actually good. Content DLC, that is. Not these skins and whatnot.
Oh yeah the content DLC is great, and in fact I’d say in the ‘pre-sequel’ that the claptrap DLC was actually better than the main game. But it still bugs me a bit to pay the same price for a ‘season pass’ as I did for the whole game originally. And I’m not in a hurry to play borderlands 3, so why not wait and get it all for less.
Looking at that achievement streak just puts me in awe. Fantastic work!
Thanks man. Honestly it started out as just wanting to go for one year, and guess it kind of just carried on.