April’s Stats
aka. When the backlog got out of control again
I’m not sure what happened this month, but the backlog growth exploded again. Well in all perspective, not as bad as in April last year, but still I didn’t manage to keep things more or less balanced like in the past months. Even though I tried my best, the backlog got the best of me.
I signed up in a bunch of challenges this month I might be getting an addiction and most of the games I’ve played (all of those I’ve finished actually) were picked for me. Turned out they were all good. I still have to finish The Bureau: X-com declassified as I didn’t manage to finish it on time, so it will have to wait for next month’s report.
How was April for you, did you slay your backlog or did it took over?
| Played | Finished | Completed | Backlog+ | Achievements |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 8 | 3 | 21 | 159 |
Most Satisfying Finish
Most Exciting Addition
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Mad Max
58 hours playtime
38 of 49 achievements
-
Fallout Shelter
28 hours playtime
23 of 35 achievements
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35MM
5 hours playtime
18 of 20 achievements
-
NieR:Automata™
20 hours playtime
19 of 47 achievements
-
Mystik Belle
6 hours playtime
14 of 15 achievements
-
Last Word
8 hours playtime
9 of 9 achievements
-
Memoria
6 hours playtime
31 of 31 achievements
-
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
5 hours playtime
10 of 41 achievements
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Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~
3 hours playtime
0 of 85 achievements
-
Deponia
7 hours playtime
19 of 19 achievements
Mad Max
58 hours playtime, 38 of 49 achievements
I started that one last month, as part of escollo's picks for March's Play your SG wins challenge, but it rapidly became clear I wouldn't have time to finish it. The game is huge, and even though a bit repetitive (all the side tasks quickly become more of the same), it was somehow extremely enjoyable. I guess it was the kind of game I needed at that moment. I had a break after I beat the main story and but I intend to put a few more hours in eventually to get some more cheevos. Great game overall, and one of the best ingame tool to take screenshots.
35MM
5 hours playtime, 18 of 20 achievements
I had good expectations for this game that presented itself as a post-apo walking simulator, and ended up with a bag of mixed feelings. On the plus side, the game IS pretty in this desolate kind of way, and the story, even though not super developed, was kind of touching in the end. Sadly, the gameplay was quite bad. The controls were sluggish, the english translation was poorly done (think google translate bad) and some parts were so tedious that I thought about quitting, had it not be that I won it from Playing Appreciated and needed to play it. Overall, as weird as it sounds, I liked the game but I wouldn't really recommend it, unless you already own it or get it in a bundle.
NieR:Automata™
20 hours playtime, 19 of 47 achievements
One of the games Narayan picked for me for this month's challenge, even though I planned on playing it this month anyway. I was so hyped for this game I was almost expecting to be disappointed, but it was far from being the case. I have to say the game was everything I had read about it, and some more. The universe design is amazing, the story is really interesting, the combat system is very satisfying... and I could go on. I only played one playthrough for now, but I intend to have at least 2 more, as the game changes in your 2nd and 3rd playthrough (I'm not gonna spoil how in case you wanna find out for yourself). I'm pretty sure it's one of those game that I'll go back to and probably go for 100%. If you haven't played it yet, I would recommend you give it a try (and don't get scared by the "anime" feeling, it's not as predominant as you might think). So far the best game I've played this year.
Mystik Belle
6 hours playtime, 14 of 15 achievements
Another great pick for the monthly challenge. At first I was quite curious as it's described as a mix between a Point & Click and a Metroidvania, but it turned out to be quite a nice (even though short) game. The graphics are that kind of modern retro style, extremely cute and full of little interesting details. Something unexpected made me love the game even more, but as it's super spoilery I don't wanna talk about it here. You can spoil yourself here if you wish, but you've been warned. I recommend this hidden gem if you like short metroidvanias.
Last Word
8 hours playtime, 9 of 9 achievements
I had been curious about this one but I wasn't expecting to find the gameplay so addictive. It's weird to explain but basically, you're living in a society where people like to verbally joust against each other. You're invited to a reception at a mansion and end up locked up in the house with the other guests, and trying to solve the mystery of whatever the hell is going on. I had so much fun with it, I'm really glad Narayan picked it.
Memoria
6 hours playtime, 31 of 31 achievements
4th game I played as part of the monthly challenge, and another great pick. It's a good point and click, and even though I didn't play the first game in the series, I wasn't really lost. The game started a bit slow but I got quickly caught up in the story, wanting to know more. As usual with Daedalic, or at least in my opinion, the game design is really nice.
Go! Go! Nippon! ~My First Trip to Japan~
3 hours playtime, 0 of 85 achievements
I played this one as part of the Play or Pay 6. It's quite a simple visual novel, mostly centered on touristic locations and traditions in Japan. Don't expect too much romance here, even though there was one scene with semi nudity, and it felt a bit forced and unnecessary, but it clearly wasn't their primary goal. You might have noticed I completed the game, yet have no achievements, and it's because the devs decided to lock ALL the achievements behind DLCs. They released 2 DLCs so far, one in 2015 and one in 2016, basically "updating" the game behind a paywall (adding stuff like better resolutions, and achievements). I'm not that interested into getting them as from what I collected they're not really worth the price tag as they don't add much content in itself, so I guess it'll stay at that.
Deponia
7 hours playtime, 19 of 19 achievements
Another game played as part of PoP 6, but let's face it, it was long overdue. I didn't dislike it per se, but I think I got too hyped for it over the years. Honestly, there was a lot of funny scenes but the game became instantly more enjoyable when I started following a guide. Sadly, it's one of those P&C where the moon logic is over the top, and it's hard to understand what is the next course of action the dev planned. However with that out of the way, it's quite a fun game to play, and I'll definitely have a go at the sequels, which are all sitting in my library anyway.
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35MM
5 hours playtime
18 of 20 achievements
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NieR:Automata™
20 hours playtime
19 of 47 achievements
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Ghost of a Tale
0 minutes playtime
no achievements
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The Little Acre
0 minutes playtime
0 of 27 achievements
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Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller
0 minutes playtime
0 of 59 achievements
-
Tumblestone
0 minutes playtime
0 of 28 achievements
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Pixel Puzzles: UndeadZ
0 minutes playtime
0 of 34 achievements
-
Subnautica
0 minutes playtime
0 of 3 achievements
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Hollow Knight
0 minutes playtime
0 of 52 achievements
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Shardlight
0 minutes playtime
0 of 19 achievements
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Mushroom Wars
0 minutes playtime
0 of 15 achievements
-
Night in the Woods
0 minutes playtime
0 of 31 achievements
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Syberia 3
0 minutes playtime
0 of 40 achievements
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2Dark
0 minutes playtime
0 of 15 achievements
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The Blackwell Legacy
0 minutes playtime
0 of 8 achievements
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Blackwell Convergence
0 minutes playtime
0 of 12 achievements
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Blackwell Unbound
0 minutes playtime
0 of 10 achievements
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Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD
0 minutes playtime
0 of 36 achievements
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Pictopix
0 minutes playtime
0 of 18 achievements
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Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire
0 minutes playtime
0 of 18 achievements
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Darkarta: A Broken Heart's Quest Collector's Edition
0 minutes playtime
0 of 40 achievements
Nice list of played games!
Just one question, you played 10 games and finished 8 with 3 completed.
What am I not seeing here?
Why thanks for asking how my April went.
I am mainly focused on playing humble bundle monthly games now since I always feel a bit sad when I see them being bundled soon after again. This sprinkled with a few SG wins to improve those stats a bit.
Besides some HBM games, I only added one other game to the backlog which is Overwatch.
Thanks!
For the game count, I’ve always been doing this: the finished count is the number of games I’ve actually finished this month, not considering if they’re completed (100% cheevos) or just beaten. The completed one is not additive to this, it can either be games from the finished group, or games I went back to that I had previously beaten and finished to get the cheevos. Is it more clear?
Nice, I hope you’ll post some report soon to see what you played. Did you have any good surprises? I gave away most of my last HBM but kept a few of them, even though I haven’t activated them yet.
Oh boy, Syberia 3. Looking forward to hearing about that one.
I have to say that I have been extremely hyped for Syberia 3 since it was announced (I thought they had totally dropped the project of a sequel after so long) but the first reviews are not really positive, so I’m a bit scared of what I’ll find. I’m waiting for them to release the patch they announced that supposedly will fix some of the players’ complaints before I have a go at it. Maybe I’ll use that time to quickly replay the 2 firsts as I haven’t touched them since the original release. You can be sure I’ll post a report when I’ll have played it though.
A lot of complaints I’ve seen are kinda silly. Like, how dare this game be a point & click adventure instead of Telltale style narrative, for example. But yeah, it’s technically definitely somewhat behind the times even if it does look rather nice visually.
Yes I’ve seen a bunch of those too, as well as “console peasants killed our game”. I’ll just wait for the patch and then make my own opinion about it.
the moon logic
In “The Complete Journey” Deadalic said they realized their mistakes and tried to avoid them in the future. At least they removed ‘Droggeljug’ cheevo in complete journey. They even said sorry for post office puzzle. Next games in series are much more enjoyable.
That’s a good thing! To be honest I was even surprised by so much “nonsense logic” as I never really felt the need to use a guide to enjoy a Daedalic game before, but even for someone who grew up playing games like the Monkey Island series and other P&C, it was a bit too much to be enjoyable as is.
I got the Droggeljug cheevo the “easy” way by using the save game trick, but I don’t think I’d have the patience to go through the whole game again just “remembering” what you had to do in the correct order. At least your opinion on the next in the series is giving me hope ;)
Next games have some “moon logic” too, but at least story, characters and jokes are greater in any ways.
Cool report. I agree on Mad Max. It’s pretty grindy to do everything, but it’s also somehow still fun, I think just because cruising around the world is fun and dynamic, so it’s still enjoyable even late in the game to take on a gang of bad guys or raid a base.
Thanks! I thought the driving around part and cleaning camps was really a good way to evacuate my stress after a day of work.
Whoa, 2Dark looks awesome!
Horror? Check.
Stealth? Check.
Nice graphic style? Check.
Add to the wishlist? Check! :D
Why doesn’t Steam recommend me games like that instead of all those visual novels and crap I’m not interested in :/
By the way, april was pretty fine regarding the backlog for me. I’ve added a few games, but I also managed to beat (and even complete) a few previously unfinished games :)
:D I had my eyes on 2dark since a long while ago because it was Frederick Raynal’s next project, but I missed the kickstarter for the game. Then, on late release, all hell broke loose, not because of the game itself but because one of the promises to the backers was that it would be DRM free and then they went with Denuvo. You can imagine that the backers were unhappy. And then, less than 2 weeks ago, the devs announced that because of the backlash feedback they received, they decided to remove Denuvo’s DRM from their game, so now all is good. I have high hopes regarding this one.
And congrats on your progress :D
I’d never heard about Mystik Belle, sounds like something that would be 100% up my alley. Up in the wishlist it goes!
Also [insert envious rumbling about not owning NieR in catspeak] :3
It was a total discovery for me when I won it from a friend, but I’m really glad I did cuz it’s such a cute metroidvania. It has that retro feeling but at the same time you can see so much details in the environment you know that they didn’t just go the lazy way.
Just get Nier already!!! YOU CAN FISH!
I’ve finally watched Mad Max: Fury Road recently (which was really enjoyable) and after that and reading your paragraph on the game, I have quite an itch to finally play it. Still I’m going strong with “no large open world games” after Fallout 4 for at least 2 months (sinceI tend to play those games much longer than average), so probably July the earliest XD But that’s ok, I do have several games already lined up in between :)
Also now I’m even more hyped up for NieR:A. >drool< XD It’s good to know it doesn’t disappoint even the very high hopes. :3
I’ve played a bit of Last Word, so I knew it was enjoyable (at least to me;) so I’m glad you liked it as well. And Mystik Belle is to this day on my WL, will get to getting it some day:) It’s nice that yet another person confirms positive experience with it ^^
From what I knew about Memoria is that you didn’t actually have to have played the “predecessor”. Personally I couldn’t stand the protagonist/s in Chains of Satinav, and the tone was quite different. In Memoria the protagonist was instantly relatable to me, and the atmosphere resonated with me better. This was “played” in times when I had a bad habit of “taking a peek” for 15-30 min into a game in order to determine “yes, I will play it later”, or “no, I’m not touching it” - many games that I categorized “for later” still haven’t been touched years after T_T so I don’t do that anymore :P
If/when you decide to go for Mad Max, my advice would be to always have a side game ready to take breaks. I’ve played Fallout 4 for months on and didn’t get bored, but for Mad Max there is a lot more of repetitive quests. That being said, I really found it enjoyable overall and yes you should give it a try in a while :)
I feel you, it’s hard to resist the call of Nier:A :p
I’m not sure who the main protagonists were in the chain of satinav as Memoria gives the impression it’s the same guy, but I can imagine if the fairy/crow has more importance, she was already annoying me as is in Memoria. (And I know the problem for starting games “to try” and then not going back to them. I need to force myself to go back to unfinished as I tend to start completely untouched games when i pick a new one to play)
Many of the Mad Max screenshots I’ve seen look awesome. I admit that seeing those screenshots kinda made me want to buy it, and I would have bought it if not for the Arkham-style combat (which I hate). I wish more games had, at the very least, a decent photo mode.
What backlog? :p
The screenshot system in Mad Max is like if you were using instagram and a drone instead of your cellphone. It’s really so so easy to make gorgeous screenshots. I have to admit that after that, when I played Nier, I was so frustrated that there was no similar screenshot system, there would have been so many opportunities. Every game should have a similar photo mode indeed.
Jake! I wonder when next series will be aired.
I’m not watching so I’m unsure but I think there is a season (8?) currently in progress.