BLAEO — Backlog Assassins Extraordinaire

Anti-Backlogging Strategy 2.0 Daerphen’s profile

It’s about time to get rid of all my backlogged games… Ok I will be serious, I will try to get rid of some of them. So here is how I will try to manage that.

Grow Home

9 hours playtime

26 of 26 achievements

Report #275: Grow Home

Phoning home

Small and fun game about a robot stranded on an island. There is a plant that you grow. The goal is to reach your ship and get some data back to your home planet to grow some new plants.

The core gameplay is rather simple. You grow small branches to reach power islands. The plant drains the power and grows. Allowing you to reach higher. Do this a couple of times and after 2-3 hours you will have this done. Afterwards a lot of collectibles can be found and some grind achievements

Had some nice hours playing it

And done with Batch #26. And yet again 10/10 games played to the very last achievement.

Batch #26

Samsara Room

3 hours playtime

8 of 8 achievements
Hidden Folks

8 hours playtime

8 of 8 achievements
Just Cause 3

68 hours playtime

66 of 66 achievements
The Pyramid Prison

3 hours playtime

19 of 19 achievements
Half-Life 2: Episode Two

8 hours playtime

22 of 22 achievements
The Council

16 hours playtime

42 of 42 achievements
MudRunner

52 hours playtime

62 of 62 achievements
Murdered: Soul Suspect

17 hours playtime

48 of 48 achievements
Kentucky Route Zero

20 hours playtime

24 of 24 achievements
Grow Home

9 hours playtime

26 of 26 achievements

Kentucky Route Zero

20 hours playtime

24 of 24 achievements

Report #274: Kentucky Route Zero

Again…

Finished the game a while ago, but the game was not yet completely done. Only Act I to IV was released. Now after the finaly act released it also added achievements. Time to load up the game again.

My savegame was lost, but I didn't know anything of the story anyway. So good to play it from the start again.

Story is nice, but a lot to read ;) There are several choices to make throughout the game, but there are no real bad choices.

Some achievements are horrible to miss, but with a guide it is easy to do in almost one run. Only Act IV had to be replayed and one achievement requires you to play on a tuesday

Murdered: Soul Suspect

17 hours playtime

48 of 48 achievements

Report #273: Murdered: Soul Suspect

Revisit after about 5 years

This doesn't happen very often. Revisiting a game after a long time to get remaining achievements. Played Murdered: Soul Suspect in 2015 and enjoyed it. Didn't get every collectible in one go, so I decided back then to just mark it in my library as beaten with remaining achievements. Actually I have quite a list of these games, but most often it requires in my opinion too much effort to replay a game just for a single or few achievements.

But I thought after this long wait, I could not remember all of the story. And indeed, there were some parts where I didn't remember anything. Used a checklist to get all achievements, especially the ones from the museum, as you cannot return to them at a later point.

If you have it in your library, check it out. It aged quite nice. And it is rather short, first playthrough I think about 8 hours, second with collectibles in about 9-10 hours.

MudRunner

52 hours playtime

62 of 62 achievements

Report #272: MudRunner

Plowing through the mud

Finished the sequel to Spintires. This is actually called Spintires: Mudrunner. Very similar to the first game, although the map names are completely different, most of the maps are almost the same. They added a couple of new vehicles and some changes in gameplay. There are road blocks, so you cannot take the easiest way from log kiosk to lumber mill. Also there is no three-step manual gear, just first gear and first+ and reverse.

The American DLC is nice, but very short. Adds two maps and a couple of vehicles. On the additional maps they introduced yet another mechanic. Log is not general available in a kiosk, but there are many locations where it can spawn. The spawn location is random. Once you collect log from one location, another location is filled with random type log. So you have to be flexible with the log types and locations. Makes it much more interesting.

Recommended, if you do not want to buy Snowrunner in Epic Store

The Council

16 hours playtime

42 of 42 achievements

Report #271: The Council

Multi-ending video game

Oh yeah, finally I got time to play on of these games again. Having one thrilling story where from time to time you can explore the surrounding and have multiple ways to get to the end.

The game starts very strong, having the option between basically 3 playstyles by selecting a starting class. This will allow you to get specific options in dialogs or when analysing objects. If you do not have a specific skill, you need to take a different path. Also there are a many achievements in Episode 1 tied to decisions.

Unfortunately Episode 2-5 do only have achievements to complete the story. And it seems to me that the episodes are getting shorter and shorter towards the end.

Overall a very cool game. A bit a mash up of Sherlock Holmes and Walking Dead. But without quick time events

Half-Life 2: Episode Two

8 hours playtime

22 of 22 achievements

Report #270: Half-Life 2: Episode Two

Part 2 of a great game

Finally episode 2 finished of Half-Life 2. Unfortunately Episode 3 will never come and the game ends with a cliffhanger.

The game is rather short, and if you follow a guide, you can get all achievement in one run. I had to redo parts of the games due to some missing stuff.

The Pyramid Prison

3 hours playtime

19 of 19 achievements

Report #269: The Pyramid Prison

Short puzzle game

Finished a short game. Bought this few sales ago, it was Profile limited for a while, since I didn't sell really well. Now I noticed that it was removed from Steam. Not sure why, I guess they did something against the Steam ToS.

The first puzzles are really hard, as they do not tell you anything what to do. After a while you get used to the layout, how puzzles could be connected. And suddenly you are finished.

Weird game design though, that you have a gun to kill turrets, but there is no puzzle, where you need a gun. And when you die, you just respawn again.

Just Cause 3

68 hours playtime

66 of 66 achievements

Report #268: Just Cause 3

Just cause some explosions

Well, well. This game is all about blowing stuff up. Got all achievements in right about 70 hours, although there might be a couple of hours without actually playing.

The story is okay, not very thrilling and not too long. You can focus on the main story in about 15 hours. The rest will get you into reoccuring tasks, challenges and finding all the collectibles. In the process you conquer a lot of military bases, free cities and help the rebels.

Challenge me! Monthly Edition

(16.06.2020 - 16.07.2020)

previous

Have a year is done. Although I think we hardly did half the things we wanted to do? Damn you Corona.
Let's hunt down the backlog with 5 chosen games. Please pick one featuring water to fit also the theme.

For Pickers. Just copy paste and complete the data :)

* [GAME#1](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#1-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#1-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#2](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#2-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#2-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#3](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#3-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#3-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#4](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#4-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#4-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#5](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#5-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#5-HLTBTIME

Please make sure your games are sorted by completion before applying.
If you so desire and you have at least 5 unplayed SG wins, the 5 games can be picked out of your SG wins (instead of only 2/5). Just note it in your application comment.
Note in your post if you're ok playing multiplayer only games.
Same for Early Access (I know some people want to wait for release).
When you finish one (or more) of the games picked for you, please post an update by replying to your picker's comment.
If the game has achievements, you can link to either the Steam or Astats page corresponding to your progress.
If the game doesn't have achievements, please post a screenshot showing your completion.
Finally, if you have completed all the games that were assigned to you but want another go at it, feel free to post another application.

You can pick for/challenge up to 2 fellow assassins, please refrain to pick more so everybody who wants get a chance at it.
You can pick for anybody who has applied and hasn't been given a list yet, unless they specified otherwise (see next point). It is recommended to signal with a "reserved" comment that you're currently picking for that person. This way it'll avoid the situation where you spend time picking games just to come back to somebody's comment 2 minutes prior.
Please use the following criteria when picking a list for somebody.
Pick exactly 5 games
Length-wise: at least 2 short games (under 10h to beat) and 2 medium (under 15-20h). You can use HLTB to check the time, or more conveniently the Enhanced Steam browser extension (it shows the HLTB time directly on the game's steam page). That rule can be overridden by the bottom (i.e. pick 5 short games) but not the other way around, as not everybody has the same time to dedicate to gaming.
Pick two SG wins unless the person specified SG wins only, in which case pick only in the applicant's SG wins list.
Quality-wise: at least 3 of the 5 games should have a positive (or above) rating. You can use this site to quickly sort games in a user's library by ratings (thanks to JaffaCaffa for the suggestion).
Please, respect the applicant's choice regarding multiplayer-only and Early access games, as well as other requests (exclusion of certain genre etc.).
Please use the code below to post your comment, it's already formatted, you just have to copy/paste & complete the data.

Do I have to participate in this event?
No, this is an event to help you reduce your backlog. If you already have a plan and don't want anyone to pick games for you, you're free to ignore it.

What happens if I don’t participate in the event?
Absolutely nothing.

What happens if I play all the games picked for me this month?
Still nothing. (You might get a shiny profile badge at some later date. And you can come back for another batch.)

What if I don’t have time to play 5 games?
Don’t worry, one is enough, we’re just asking the pickers to select 5 to give the player a little choice.

One of the game picked for me won’t run on my computer for X or Y reason, what do I do?
If this happens, please notify the picker by replying his comment and ask them to pick a replacement. If the original picker don’t give you an answer within 24h, don’t panic, just leave a comment and we’ll pick one for you. Meanwhile, you could try one of the other picked games if you haven't played them all yet.

I played all 5 games that were picked for me and I want more!
If you have completed all 5 games and reported your completion to the original comment, you can make a new request for another list.

When picking for other people, can I only pick “never played” games?
Not necessarily, you can also pick games that seem to have been abandoned but haven’t been categorized as “won’t play”. No beaten or completed games, or games being currently played obviously.

Why are there so many rules for picking the games? I can’t be bothered!
We’re trying to make this enjoyable for everyone so if you decide to pick games for others, please read and follow the rules. I’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for the pickers too, but if it’s bothering you too much, remember you don’t need to pick games for others to join the challenge.

I’m new here, can I join the challenge?
Yes of course (and welcome to BLAEO). Please just be sure to have your games sorted by progress before signing up for the challenge, to make it easier for your picker.

Hidden Folks

8 hours playtime

8 of 8 achievements

Report #267: Hidden Folks

Revisited with more content

Got back to this as it release another section with an achievements. As an achievement hunter I of course had to reinstall and play it ;-)

The map is called "On Tour" and is themed with music festival stuff. It is not too overcomplicated to get all objects found.

Statistics

3762	games
81%	never played
5%	unfinished
5%	beaten
8%	completed
1%	won't play

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