Challenges

• The Forest Quartet
  

  2 hours playtime

  no achievements

Report #402: The Forest Quartet

Quick, spontaneous bought game during the summer sale. Looked nice visually and was supposed to be short. So I installed and played it through. A sad story but well written. Liked the game style and “puzzles”

• L.A. Noire
  

  36 hours playtime

  60 of 60 achievements

Report #401: L.A. Noire

Life of Daerphen Challenge Year 2011

Installed this game, deinstalled it, installed it again, and back and forth. Had to be very stubborn to finally get used to it. The main issue I had in the beginning was the controls of driving the car. It was just not moving, turned out that I had my driving wheel still connected with the PC and this caused issues. The game really has compatibility issues with newer Windows versions. If you have two monitors, it will always start on your second screen, but after changing resolution in the menu back and forth it sticks to the primary display.

Game was nice, took me probably around 25 hours to complete the story. And then another 10 hours to grind all the collectibles.

The end of Batch #39

• We Were Here
  

  2 hours playtime

  26 of 26 achievements

Report #400: We Were Here

Wow, 400 reports and counting :D
We decided to finally give this series a chance. The first game is quite short, took us a few seconds under 2 hours to replay the game a couple of times to get all achievements. We had some troubles with disconnects over wifi, but ethernet solved that issue. Puzzles are not too complicated, the hardest part is finding the correct words to describe symbols.

• Machinika Museum
  

  4 hours playtime

  no achievements

Report #399: Machinika Museum

Recently for free to add to the library. As I enjoyed similar games like The Room or House of Da Vinci I had to pick it up.
Its quite short. Only took me 4 hours where maybe a little bit idle time was also added.

Not disappointed by the game. It starts way too easy as everything is straight forward. Although there are no “surprises”, if you are used to these kind of puzzles, it gets a bit trickier in the end. Sometimes navigating the 3D space with just a mouse cursor is a bit tedious and error prone.

Recommended for puzzle solver fans

• Portal: Revolution
  

  9 hours playtime

  21 of 21 achievements

Report #398: Portal: Revolution

Life of Daerphen Challenge Year 2024

The youngest game in this challenge list. Just a few days into 2024 and this was released. A mod for Portal 2, which continues the story after Portal 2. Very nicely made, some of the puzzles from Portal 2 kind of recycled with a twist. The game itself took me 7-8 hours with an additional 1-2 hours of chapter select and finishing up. Very cool opportunity to get back into that gem.

• Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians
  

  6 hours playtime

  12 of 15 achievements

Report #397: Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians

Life of Daerphen Challenge Year 2013

Recently me and my play group digged into rythm games. So I decided to pick this one up for single player which also has the music/rythm tag attached. Expected a bit of different experience, but it was nice. Game is 6 level long. There is a speedrun not yet beaten, but I do not care for that now. Took me roughly 30-50min per level. Sounds doable, but no motiviation right now. Also because there are some soft-lock bugs in the game that force you to restart chapters, which of course invalidates the speedrun.

• Thirty Flights of Loving
  

  10 minutes playtime

  no achievements

Report #396: Thirty Flights of Loving

Life of Daerphen Challenge Year 2012

Quick, very quick game. Expected at least an hour of walking simulator. But somehow after 10 minutes I already got the end screen.
A bit weird and fast paced story. Not much more to tell without spoiling everything.

• Whispering Willows
  

  5 hours playtime

  20 of 20 achievements

Report #395: Whispering Willows

Life of Daerphen Challenge Year 2014

Recently I finished I switched (again) to Linux instead of Windows. Was looking for a game that works fine and can be part of my Life of Daerphen Challenge. Found this nice, short game.
Its a bit confusing at the start, especially because you need a good memory of where things have been. You are navigating left/right like a 2D scrolling adventure game. But also there are doors that adds another dimension. Besides those “GPS” issues, a nice game.

• Life is Strange: True Colors
  

  8 hours playtime

  40 of 40 achievements

Report #394: Life is Strange: True Colors

Got this in HB Choice and was very glad that I got it. Had it on the wishlist for a while, hesitating in steam sales. Finally able to play it.
Actually played it twice as the first time was on Steam Deck without Internet connection. Lucky me, no achievement unlocked, so had to redo the whole game from start to finish.
But second time was much faster as I was using a guide to get the collectibles and already knew what to do in each chapter.

Story is good, but not as strong as for example the first game of the series.

• Bud Spencer & Terence Hill - Slaps And Beans
  

  4 hours playtime

  6 of 34 achievements

Report #393: Bud Spencer & Terence Hill - Slaps And Beans

Recently got myself a Steam Deck and this was the first game I was using it for. Nice game for in between. Well some levels need a bit more time, but usually completion time is about 10-25min. Later levels required some replaying due to missing skill.
Looking forward to play the sequel as well.