For reasons partly out of my hands, I haven’t posted any BLAEO updates, from now on I’ll try to catch up with this and not just lurk around here anymore. So, let’s see, after joining BLAEO back in December, I had to go out of the country for work and couldn’t play anything for about 3 months, life was hell without Steam but I survived, barely. In the days before leaving I managed to complete Gravity Cat which is a title I won on SteamGifts, and also started playing Industry Giant 2.
After returning from my bussiness trip, just last month, I took part in April’s Monthly Theme: “Challenge Me”, and was given the following 5 games by EvilBlackSheep:
Let me start by saying that I FREAKING LOVED THIS GAME, I have always liked the Tomb Raider saga, it is in fact one of the first games I played on pc, back when it was a very low poly character fighting bears, and I hadn't played any TR titles since Tomb Raider (2013), which was like 3-4 years ago, so I really had a craving for something like this.
Anyways, to the game itself... the graphics, what can I say? Simply amazing, just take a look for yourself:
The gameplay is a lot like previous recent titles, but I felt particularly reminded of TLoU for some reason. There's several different mechanics which you unlock as you progres throughout the game, all of which are really good, the level design is almost flawless and it feels really inspired, some of the levels involve solving puzzles, that in my opionion are also very well thought out and don't get to feel tiresome at any point (unless you get stuck for some reason). The story can be a little predictable and doesn't really contribute anything out of the ordinary to the franchise, but it's still fun to play and fairly interesting, I particularly enjoyed playing the Tomb Challenges and the Baba Yaga side story DLC, which focuses on a "witch" that lives alone in the forest scaring anyone that comes near her territory by using some kind of hallucinogenic plant to mess with the mind of the invaders.
I beat the main storyline, all of the challenge tombs, optional missions, and got all the collectibles, but I don't think I will be getting 100% of the achievements for this one, as they involve doing time trials and score attacks, which I don't really like doing. But I really enjoyed the experience anyways, I give this game an 8.5/10.
I had heard nothing but good things about the "SteamWorld" games, so I was actually pretty excited to see what all the fuss was about, and man, were they right about it! This is a really interesting fun little game. The main point of the game are the turn-based fights which ocurr when you board enemy spaceships, the strategy part is not particularly complex which I think is okay, as the game gives more of a relaxed-fun vibe, the characters are quite likeable and the humour in the game is also kind of nice.
I haven't played really played much of this game, I think I made like 2-3 missions, but I look forward to getting back to it.
A turn-based combat strategy game centered around exploration. as the title suggest, with a unique "attitude" mechanic, which is very interesting, as it gives more than one possible approach to every scenario depending on the circumstances, and the strenghts of both your characters and the enemy's. I haven't played much of this either, but I played enough to see it is a very fun game with very charismatic characters, I also liked the fact that it can be played casually, as I don't have to rush with this one and just go back to it whenever I feel like.
That’s all the games from April’s “Challenge Me”, thanks again to EvilBlackSheep for all the recommendations. Other games I started playing and completed back in April are:
I downloaded this one from the "Green Steam" back when I had just bought my pc and had nearly no games whatsoever, I already beat the sory back then, but I have no proof of that, so I'm not sure whether or not should I mark it as beaten, I plan to replay the story later anyways, right now I've been focusing more on playing the online mode tho, which can be a lot of fun sometimes, specially if played with friends.
Built from the ground up, this game looks as well, as you thought the original Half-Life did when you first played it ~20 years ago, the story remains pretty much unchanged, but there's also enough changes so that it doesn't just feel like a complete rehash of the original, it also has some fun achievements.
in short, if you ever feel nostalgic and want to give good ol' Half-Life another go, maybe give this one a try? It's really nice too.
Superb grahics and very life-like physics give this game a very realistic feeling, which can be a very good thing to some, not to me though, when it comes to racing games, I always enjoy a more arcadey approach better, this one's just way too difficult for my liking. I don't plan on playing it a lot or any time soon, which is not to say I didn't like it, I just prefer other games before this, and I have plenty of others to choose from.
A Steam friend really recommended this one, and I can see why now, this is like playing Devil May Cry (which is also a hell of a game) but with a faster-paced even more over the top, wittier character. If you don't instantly fall in love with Bayonetta after 5 minutes of playing this game, I'd suspect there's something seriously wrong with you... but not only Bayonetta is crazily cool, the rest of the characters feel like they came out of a super creative looney's mind as well.
The gameplay mechanics in this game are not what you usually see in any hack and slash. You shoot bullets off of Bayonetta's feet, ffs. The game feels fluid at all times, and is, simply put, a joy to play, really look forward to finishing this one. I can easily see were all of the praise for this game comes from.
And that ends with my plays for the month of April. For the month of May I also took part in the Monthly Theme, which consisted in a little Rocket League tournament between BLAEO members, and even tho me and my parter Kap got out in the first round (to the eventual champions, so it didn’t feel so bad at the end) it was a lot of fun taking part in it, hopefully we get to do that again sometime. Here’s some of the games I’ve started playing and completed so far this month:
And that's pretty much it, a series of 3D gun models, which you can assemble and disassemble, and it does that decently enough, even tho it doesn't manage to feel like a real game, at least to me it didn't, but if you are someone like me, who hasn't the absolutely slightest idea about how guns work, this has the potential to be, more than fun, educational. The animations are bit slow in my opinion and there's certainly a lot of things it can improve upon, but for a free game, it's not half bad.
Dr. Langeskov, The Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald: A Whirlwind Heist Interesting games
6 of 6 achievements(100%)
This game is a comedy, walking simulator, the way I'd describe it is: The Stanley Parable, without trying that hard to be meta. I had already played this one before, but then I noticed I was missing the achievements, so I went back to it for another go (it took me more than one go actually, but whatever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯).
The characters are quite interesting and fairly developed, the art style is pretty nice and fitting, and the story while not super fascinating can be intriguing at times. There's only two things I didn't like about this game, the fact that luck plays a big role, and that the dialogs don't really vary a lot, so it's not really the same after one playthrough.
I would give it an 7.5/10 and I still plan on going back to it, at least to get a few more achievements, and maybe even try to get the 100%.
It has an achievement that involves reaching 1000 points, which is actually really hard, anything above 500 points is hard, I barealy got it, with 1030 or 1035 points I think, something like that, costed me hours to get it, then I go to AStats and it turns out there's an easy way to get it -.- oh well...
I had played this before but they must have added the achievements later, so I went back and made a quick replay to get them all.
Well, this was a lenghty update that took way too long to make, but at least now I have a template for the following ones, and will try to make it every other update at the end of each month from now on, instead of letting it pile up. Oh, I also finally redesigned my profile, which was more of a hassle than I originally thought, since it’s not HTML/CSS that this page uses, but Bootstrap (which I’d never even heard of before) but I managed somehow, and was very pleased with the results in the end.
You sure made up for your absence with games. Tremendous update.
Yeah, I try not to fall behind way too much, as my backlog is already big enough and never stops growing, not to mention I also missed like 70-80 episodes of my tv shows while away, been catching up with those as well ._.
wow.. 100% gravy cat.. i didn’t think anyone could …
Really? I thought it wasn’t all that hard, at least not compared to some other 2D platform puzzlers I’ve played before
There are a lot of games on here I’ve been meaning to play, especially Renowned Explorers: International Society and Oxenfree! I can relate to your Rocket League thoughts so much, I recently realised how addicted I’d become to it and have vowed to give it a break before it takes over like Football Manager did in the past… and the player base tends to be quite horrible, I can handle the ironic “What a save” or “Nice shot” but I’ve had people in the past leave nasty comments on my profile or abuse me in chat that has certainly contributed to putting me off playing it. It’s just a game after all… wow.
Oh, please do give those two a chance, if you like Strategy games Renowned Explorers is a particularly interesting one, Oxenfree is more of a Narrative, but still looked really nice to me as well.
Hahah looks like we’re kind of the same, freaking football games, I’ve spent countless (I really think that word is the only that makes justice to all the time I’ve sunk into football games) hours playing the likes of FIFA 98-17, Football Manager and Rocket League, way more playtime than all of the rest of my Steam games have combined I’d wager. But yeah, most recently Rocket League, as I haven’t bought FIFA 17 just yet, and FIFA 16 on PC must be pretty much dead by now… anyways, getting rid of RL for a while should be good in clearing up some few hours a week, 5 minutes at a time and suddenly you find yourself having wated 3-4 hours in a day, thanks, no thanks haha
I do like strategy games a lot! I’ve come to realise I tend to appreciate the slower paced more thoughtful turn-based games as I can get quite stressed with real-time management and having to focus on a lot of things at once, Renowned Explorers seems to fit my preference quite nicely.
I know I know lol, I just played FM exclusively when I started my Steam account, I get a terrible reminder of it when I load my profile’s game list with the hours played. Yeah you can’t close it when you’ve just lost a game as you want to end on a high note and when you do win you don’t want to end your run… very hard to stop.
3 months without playing? o.o :(((
I mean, I CAN survive without playing if I personally choose to do so. But if it’s forced on me, it’s just annoying and bääääh - yeah, can’t think of an English equivalent to it :D
Apart from that it looks like you played quite a few games up till now, so that is nice. I confess, I scrolled more or less over it. But some caught my eye. Like Dead in Bermuda, since it’s starting to be a “gosh, I don’t really like you anymore” game for me. Stuck on two (though I think it’s probably more one, but I so far tried the other one first) achievements there and yeah, it’s stupid therefore :D
Have a great weekend!
Happy backlog killing!
Yeah, it was hell-ish… at least I got to watch the entire 5 seasons of Fringe, that I’d been wanting to watch for years now (it’s awesome btw), read a few books and play a few android games I had on my phone. Not sure what “bääääh” means, but it does sound appropiate haha!
That I have, and don’t worry I never expected anyone to read all of it, I was so done by the time I ended writing I forgot about adding Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain to my plays, it just ended up being way longer than I originally intended :s
And I get what you mean with Dead in Bermuda, played it like 4 times now, and I just don’t think I’ll be able to get all the achievements, or even reach the end of the game, it’s just to harsh and unforgiving, not to mention to fact that randomness plays a huge part, I think the furthest I ever go was the first time I played it, how is that even logical?
Wishing you a fantastic weekend and backlog slaying as well :D
Uh, books is always a nice alternative. What did you read? I started to force myself to read 2 chapters a day, because… well, I’m not going to start about my book backlog :D
Ha, well happens :D
For some reason I have Metal Gear Solid V on my radar, although I haven’t played any of the others. I think a friend recommended it to me or something like that.
Uh, I have a tip: After starting the game, have a look at the settings. You can change the difficulty. It took me ages to work that out -.-
Thank you very much! I’m getting there somewhere :D
I finally finished reading Les MIserables which was nice, but could’ve been better had I not seen the movie before, also read The Man in the High Castle, which was great, I tried watching the tv show a few days back, but it felt short from the book, also read In Cold Blood, which I didn’t find particurly good nor bad. Yeah, I think my book backlog is way worse than my steam backlok, I’m trying to work my way through the Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy series rn and with Fahrenheit 451, what about you, reading anything in particular rn?
Yeah, this is actually my first MGS, I’m liking it so far, it’s kind of like sniper elite, that’s I got so far haha
Ohhhh, really? I had no clue, damn, I’ll try lowering that, thanks for the tip!
Ah, yeah. That’s really a problem. Both ways. Either one saw the series/movie first and the book is meeeh or the other way round. I’ve seen Legend of the Seeker and started the books afterwords. It was awesome! But I can’t see the series anymore, because it’s sooooo bad :D
Just finished the Mass Effect Background story first book. Not sure what it’s called in English :D
Right now I’m reading the Tales of the Otori 4. It’s like traveling to a different world :]
I think I tried Hitchhikers Guide but since I already had my difficulties with the movie… I just can’t properly engage with it or something. Sadly since it’s supposed to be great and all.
Just shooter? Well then I do wonder why it was recommended to me. I thought it also had a story :D
I know. One normally sets it at the start, but DiB doesn’t give you that option so nobody suspects it. I was close to giving it up. And in the end it feels pretty easy with easy setting :D
NP :)
Tales of Otori series looks interesting, might give it a chance later, added it to my goodreads backlog lol. Yeah, there’s something unique about Douglas Adams’ writing, it takes a certain sense of humour to like it, so it’s not for everyone.
Oh well, it does have a story and it actually looks pretty strange and interesting, but idk, it started with an amazing intro level with lots of crazy shit going on, but then it just transformed into a central hub where you get deployed by helicopter to carry out missions without much story to them (kinda like sniper elite) and once finished back to the hub… maybe it changes later in the game, but idk, I only made a couple missions after that, kinda disapointing if that’s really all there is to it.
I enjoy the book series a lot :)
Oh man, I soooooo try to avoid putting books on my to read list on goodreads. I just shut my eyes and prey they might just go away :D
Ok, well. I don’t know. Maybe I should rethink that being on my list. Thanks for the little insight. And yeah, I totally understand you. I would be pretty disappointed as well :/
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Welcome back and congrats on the progress! I’m glad you liked some of the games I picked for you especially Steamworld heist, no i’m not obsessed with having people trying this game, idk what you’re talking about. Seems like you’ve been playing great games overall, keep up the good backlog fight ;)
PS: I love your profile and post format, great job!
Yeah, most of them I actually had had on my eye for a while but you gave me the final push haha, I will definitely be trying to finish them sometime in the next couple of weeks, I think that’s somewhat realistic?
Thank you! I spent a good few hours with those, freaking bootstrap it’s kind of hard, you change one thing out of place and everything gets jumbled .-.