August’s Stats
aka. A small victory is still a victory
Time for another monthly report, how’s August been for you guys? On my side, I managed to keep the backlog under control, until the very last day of the month (still have a positive outcome but it was gonna be better). I’ve been playing a lot of good games this month so I’m pretty satisfied how it turned out. On top of the games in the Assassinations Report, I’ve been playing a lot of Renowned Explorers again this month (Picked it up again for the challenge and ended up hooked again.) and I still love it. I joined the ABC challenge train but I haven’t made much progress compared to the rest of the participants yet. Still, I love the idea and will keep slowly working at it.
I hope you’re all doing well, feel free to share what’s your favorite game you’ve been playing this month, I always love to read about it.
| Played | Finished | Completed | Backlog+ | Achievements |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 | 14 | 7 | 11 | 256 |
ABC Challenge Progress (3/26)
Finished this month: 3Most Satisfying Finish
Most Exciting Addition
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Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire
15 hours playtime
4 of 18 achievements
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Renowned Explorers: International Society
53 hours playtime
91 of 165 achievements
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Vive le Roi
5 hours playtime
no achievements
-
Solitairica
51 hours playtime
21 of 27 achievements
-
Antihero
9 hours playtime
14 of 30 achievements
-
Ticket to Ride
88 minutes playtime
6 of 70 achievements
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Armello
15 hours playtime
15 of 50 achievements
-
Surfingers
3 hours playtime
0 of 10 achievements
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Evoland 2
34 hours playtime
38 of 38 achievements
-
The Little Acre
2 hours playtime
25 of 27 achievements
-
BloodGate
33 hours playtime
22 of 22 achievements
-
Ittle Dew
6 hours playtime
4 of 15 achievements
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Star Sky - ブルームーン
71 minutes playtime
18 of 18 achievements
-
Copoka
3 hours playtime
12 of 12 achievements
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12 is Better Than 6
13 hours playtime
46 of 46 achievements
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A Long Way Home
5 hours playtime
22 of 22 achievements
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Batman - The Telltale Series
12 hours playtime
30 of 30 achievements
Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire
15 hours playtime, 4 of 18 achievements
This was such a good game, even better than I expected. I wanted to play it since I won it but thanks to Narayan for picking it for me in the last "Challenge Me" event. The game is made in a similar style to The Banner Saga, but with a Arabian nights feeling rather than the Viking setting. However, the combat sequences are quite close in style and it was a satisfying experience if you're into turned based tactics games like I am. The only minor critic I'd make about this game is how sudden the ending is, leaving quite a lot of the story unresolved. According to the devs, there is no sequel in the work unless on long term the game sales allow it to be funded. They thought it worked well as a stand alone, but seeing how I'm not the only one to "complain" about it, they could have wrapped it up better. I'd still recommend the game if you liked the gameplay of the Banner Saga series and you want some more.
Ticket to Ride
1 hour playtime, 6 of 70 achievements
I love the physical version of this board game, and I have to say this digital version, despite being quite unfancy graphically (not ugly either, just basic) is pretty well done. It might be stripped of all fancy options and new mecanisms but you get the same gameplay than you'd get out of the boardgame and it allows you to play with friends who don't live close by, which is all I'm asking.
Vive le Roi
5 hours playtime, no achievements
Let's be honest, I only finished this game because it was a Playing Appreciated win, and even though it's not mandatory to finish them, I always feel I need to. I thought the game would be an nice puzzle, and I liked the visual aspect a lot, but sadly not only it got repetitive fast, but it was like playing a puzzle version of Dark Souls. And I don't mean that as a compliment. A lot of the levels are ridiculously timed and any misclick or second too late after you start the level make you have to start all over. I'm sure it might be enjoyable if it's your thing, but by the end of it, I was just relieved to be done.
Antihero
8 hours playtime, 14 of 30 achievements
I really love this game. It's a digital boardgame where you're at the head of a thieves/assassins and play against another guild master for the control of the neighborhood. You have to be the first to acquire a certain number of victory points through different mecanics, such as burgaly, assasination, blackmail or bribes. Graphically, it has a Don't Starve vibe, which I liked a lot. I finished the story mode but I'll for sure play more of this. Like I said last month, feel free to poke me if you want to play some multiplayer on this.
Evoland 2
34 hours playtime, 38 of 38 achievements
My biggest surprise of the month, and a great one. I loved every aspect of this game, even the ones where the genre was not what I enjoyed in general. Ok, I raged a little in a certain plateforming part that was ridiculously frustrating, but other than that it was all good. Loved the 4 different graphical styles, and all the sidequests, the card game and of course the main story. If you have this sitting in your backlog, go play it. (I think it's irrelevant to have played the first one of not, I haven't and didn't feel I was missing anything).
The Little Acre
1 hour playtime, 25 of 27 achievements
Another game Narayan picked for me in the Challenge Me challenge of last month, and such a cute one. Despite being quite a short point and click, it's very nicely done. The whole game feels like an animated movie, and you feel like a lot of effort has been put into it. I hope the devs make another game soon, they're pretty good at it.
BloodGate
33 hours playtime, 22 of 22 achievements
This one was sitting in my "Waiting to be out of Early Access" list, when I read by casuality that not only it was abandonned by the devs, but they'll shut off the server on August 31st, which would not only shut down the multiplayer but ALSO the single player. Yes, you read it correctly. To top it all, the devs refused to remove the constant server check on the solo mode, yet, their now unplayable game is STILL to this day available for buying on steam. I kid you not. Anyway, as I got that game from a friend a long while ago, I wanted to play it before it became impossible so I didn't feel he wasted his money. Worst part of it all? The game is actually good and even unfinished it could have been great if the devs hadn't jump the ship. What a waste.
Ittle Dew
5 hours playtime, 4 of 15 achievements
Ittle Dew is a cute puzzle adventure game, and I really liked playing through it. It has a zelda-ish feeling to it, but not as complex. The game can be finished in under 15min if you believe the achievements, but of course it would be a straight forward speedrun. I really liked the tone of the dialogs and will probably replay it for some more cheevos. And be aware that if you want to 100% it, it includes a speedrun AND multiple playthroughs.
Star Sky - ブルームーン
1 hour playtime, 18 of 18 achievements
One of the games LastM picked for me in this month's Challenge Me, it was quite short but sort of poetic. There is not much gameplay but it was very relaxing. You basically just walk through a night landscape and stop when the music gives you an indication to try and trigger different events.
Copoka
3 hours playtime, 12 of 12 achievements
Another of LastM's picks, this one was such a great surprise. I thought it would be just a relaxing bird simulator, but it actually had a story, that you learn about by listening to the conversations all around the land as you fly around collecting things to build your nest. Really a nice little experience.
Solitairica
51 hours playtime, 21 of 27 achievements
As you can see, I spent a lot of time casually playing this in the past two months, and I finally managed to beat it with a few of the sets available. It's quite a nice twist on the solitaire genre, with elements of RPG in it. Perfect game for playing while watching a movie/show, even though sometimes the RNG can be frustrating when it makes you loose a battle far down the line.
First on my ABC challenge list, this one took quite a bit longer than announced by HLTB. Either their data was innacurate, or I might have just been pretty bad at it as it's not my usual type of game. Nonetheless it was very enjoyable. It's a top down western shooter with a very particular graphic style. I loved that you could always try to approach most of the situations both in a brutal OR in a stealthy kind of way (which may be also why it took me so long). It was difficult at times, but never impossible and it's very satisfying when you pass a though spot.
A puzzle game, a bit repetitive, but still ok, where you jump from asteroid to asteroid, collecting energy balls to be able to travel back home. Not much story to it, and it ends very abruptly though.
Not the best Telltale I've played, but I liked it a lot as I like Batman's universe in general. I liked the new approach of certain characters/story plots, but something bothered me. It's the first time I notice in a Telltale game that if you fail a QTE, the game continues as if nothing happened instead of making you die (like I remember in The Walking Dead for example). This was maybe because this one had A LOT of them, but still I found it disturbing to know you've failed, yet the game goes on as nothing happened. Overall I liked the game and will keep my eyes on the new season.
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Vive le Roi
5 hours playtime
no achievements
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Evoland 2
34 hours playtime
38 of 38 achievements
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Wuppo
0 minutes playtime
0 of 23 achievements
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The Myth Seekers: The Legacy of Vulcan
0 minutes playtime
0 of 18 achievements
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Mysterium
0 minutes playtime
no achievements
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Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight
0 minutes playtime
0 of 9 achievements
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Ittle Dew
6 hours playtime
4 of 15 achievements
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Midnight Mysteries 4: Haunted Houdini
0 minutes playtime
0 of 16 achievements
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Midnight Mysteries 3: Devil on the Mississippi
0 minutes playtime
0 of 16 achievements
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Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy
0 minutes playtime
no achievements
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Midnight Mysteries: Witches of Abraham - Collector's Edition
0 minutes playtime
no achievements
I had a lot more problems with Batman than QTEs not having any effect. I found some of the QTEs tough to do on the keyboard, I have no idea if it’s easier on controller, so I just failed on purpose :D
I like Copoka. I’m actually glad you got 100% on it. A friend of mine played the game only 2 days ago and she got a bug with a dialogue not popping so she couldn’t get the last achievement despite unlocking every single story element except that one dialogue which refused to work :(
The Little Acre looks really cute. What would your impressions be about finishing it under an hour for the achievement? Easily doable or tricky etc?
I have to admit I always play Telltale games with the 360 controller because I find it way more comfy, especially for the QTE, so they were not a problem per se, yet I kept missing a few prompts on this one, which didn’t even seem to matter.
Aww that’s sad for your friend :( I’m glad mine didn’t bug out, but more than that I’m glad I played that game. It was such a interesting way of storytelling.
I think the speedrun is easily doable for The Little Acre once you know what you’re doing (and you can always follow a guide).
They added Shift as part of the QTEs in Batman. So suddenly switching from an E to a Shift + Q was a bit annoying for me so I let it go as it’s impossible to not progress due to failing :D
I was following Copoka threads closely. That achievement in question was glitched when the game was first released. But then they updated it and all the people who reported it being glitched confirmed that the achievement worked then. I immediately started playing and got the achievement. It was really sad to witness my friend go through that because it made her hate the game. I don’t understand how it works for some people while it doesn’t for others. I think only 1-2 people reported that supposedly fixed glitch to be still ongoing :(
Ugh I’m glad not to have been playing with the keyboard then. I guess it was to replace either the trigger in the QTE. Still not very well thought through of them as it’s clearly not comfy to play.
I’m not even sure how that cheevo unlocked to be honest, because it happened not even in the last chapter of the game but before, and i thought it was odd as there was more dialogues to be heard later on :/
Great to see that you won the battle against the evil backlog this month! Keep up and I’m sure you’ll win the war!
Evoland 2 was the best game I played last year. Glad you liked it! I feel you about those platforms. I hated those caves too. xD
Congrats on beating the rest as well! A bunch of good looking games. :)
Thank you. It ended up a pretty small victory but I’m still happy about it, it’s always satisfying.
I really loved Evoland 2 above all expectations I had of it, and was even a bit sad there was no sequel planned for now. I see you know exactly what I’m talking about.
And thanks, it was a pretty good month quality wise, apart maybe from Vive le roi and even that wasn’t atrocious, just not my thing in the end.
My friend keeps pushing me to play Evoland 2, saying that it’s really unique and well polished. I’m sure I will eventually >.>
Congrats on your games c:. There are some really great looking ones, especially Solitairica that I really want to play soon. I -love- casual games that I can play at my pace, but that are also interesting.
I think the best game I’ve played this month was one like that - Mini Metro. It sounds really underwhelming, but it was a really great game. And I don’t even like puzzles.:)
Good luck in September!
You shoooooould, it’s really good :D Hopefully I can challenge you at some point and stuff it in there :p
Solitairica was really fun, especially if you love casual games it should be just right up your alley.
MINI METRO <3 It’s not underwhelming at all, it made my 2016 favorites list.
Good luck to you too :D Happy September!
That’s some impressive backlog killing with lots of achievements. Congrats.
Evoland II is indeed great but I didn’t manage to 100%. And it is a shame what they did to BloodGate.
Also thanks for your mini review for Tahira, I’ve just added it to my wishlist :)
Thank you :)
It’s even more a shame that the game had a great potential. Usually it’s mediocre/bad games where the devs take the money and run but this one was actually fun to play and deserved to be finished :(
You played a lot of intersting games this monght, Sheepie. Good work! :)
Bloodgate has been on my wishlist for such a long time, but I never bought it. Wanted to finally grab it during this summer sale, but I learned that the devs had abbandoned it so I decided against it. What a shame, it looked like a very good game to me (and people apparently agreed, seeing the amount of positive reviews) :(
how’s August been for you guys?
Fine for me. I failed the monthly theme, as I was missing one screenshot (from the “Travel Kit” category), but I mostly enjoyed the games I played so there’s that :)
Thank you.
And be careful to remove it from your WL as it’s not only abandonned, it’s now even unplayable, yet it’s still on sale…
Aww but it was so close, it’s still an almost success :D
I found it surprisingly coincidental to see Ticket To Ride in your list, since a Steam friend (who I hadn’t spoken with in a few months) randomly asked me if I wanted to play this past week. I hadn’t touched the game in about a year, but was immediately reminded of how simple and fun it was, and I’m glad you like it, too, (NotSo)EvilBlackSheep. ;)
*Confession: I have a physical copy of Ticket To Ride: Europe in my closet that’s never been played. -_-
It was given away recently by Asmodee (the editors? at least the company who edits the boardgame here in france) so it’s a good thing as I guess it brought a new player base.
Since it’s confession time, I have a physical copy of Shadows Over Camelot untouched in my closet. It’s so hard to get so many people who do like board games together. I need to change friends.
“I need to change friends.” Haha! I actually went through a phase years ago where I started collecting some card/boardgames that looked like fun, but most of them have still gone untouched. (Even some great two-player games like Summoner Wars and Claustrophobia). :3
This comment was deleted over 6 years ago.
Wish I could leave an interesting comment, however the trouble is that I don’t know any of those games at all ( Batman, haven’t played it though)
Congratz on the progress.
When do we estimate we will reach backlog zero day?
I am scared that would be never. You see, I’m awfully bad at not adding any game at all to my backlog ;__;
I was pleasantly surprised by Ittle Dew too, I thought it would be a cringefest banking on the obvious similarities to Zelda but it was an actual solid game on its own, and to top it off it’s even genuinely funny. There’s a sequel that you might want to wishlist, I can’t vouch for it as I haven’t played it myself but it has pretty decent reviews.
It’s the first time I notice in a Telltale game that if you fail a QTE, the game continues as if nothing happened instead of making you die (like I remember in The Walking Dead for example)
I heard the same thing about Minecraft I think. I guess they save some money by cutting the scenes that people would seldom see >_>
The only minor critic I’d make about this game [Tahira] is how sudden the ending is
So, just like Banner Saga in that regard too T_T
One of the games LastM picked for me […] Another of LastM’s picks
You shouldn’t hang around LastM, I heard he’s a dog （ΟΔΟ；；）
I have my eyes on the Ittle Dew sequel, but I wanted to check a few reviews before wishlisting it or not ;)
For the Telltale thing, I just don’t see their point in putting QTE there is failing them has strictly no effect :/
So, just like Banner Saga in that regard too T_T
Except for Tahira, unlike Banner Saga, there is no sequel planned or anything, the devs themselves said on the steam forum they thought it was just fine as a stand alone story, which a lot of people disagree on (just because of how abrupt the ending is).
You shouldn’t hang around LastM, I heard he’s a dog （ΟΔΟ；；）
Yet is better behaved than you, he knows not to piss everywhere :p
I think it’s fair to say you’ve enjoyed Evoland II when it’s both most exciting finish and satisfying addition this month. :D Also, I see Wuppo in there! I was lucky to win it as well, currently playing it. I like it A LOT. I can certainly recommend it!
It is, I really loved it! I was also excited about Wuppo especially after reading SevenDeck’s post saying it’s close to Botanicula. It looks adorable <3
Oh yes, it does have a similar sweet charm like in Botanicula :) If you already find the looks adorable, just wait until you see all the little animations… this game is so nice.