Gotta Play' Em All! Lengray’s profile

My backlog-killing strategy

Stay away from games deals websites. Play new games right away. Start on easy difficulty if available.
Ignore achievements on the first playthrough. Drop a game if playing it has become a chore.

Tag Challenge #1

Fall 2023

Temporary post

Minecraft Dungeons

★★★★★
15 hours
Dungeon Crawler Switch Beaten

A fun diablo-like take on the Minecraft universe. A very pleasant surprise!

Riders Republic

★★★★
21/34

52 hours
Sports Ubisoft Connect Beaten

A very nice "sucessor" to Steep, though the snow sports aren't nearly as good.

Samurai Shodown

★★★★
32/45

17 hours
2D Fighting Steam Beaten

Fast combat, extensive roster, it's a nice reboot of the franchise.

Monster Prom

★★★★
24/52

15 hours
Dating-sim Steam Beaten

I didn't expect such a wacky game. The writing is truly outstanding.

Lacuna

★★★★
9/25

7 hours
Detective Steam Beaten

I really enjoyed this one. The pixel art is excellent but the beginning was a little slow.

Star Wars Republic Commando

★★★★
no achievements

10 hours
FPS Steam Beaten

The visuals haven't aged well but the gameplay is fantastic. Quite tough at times.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy

★★★★
25 hours
Rhythm 3DS Beaten

Great rhythm game. Playing with the stylus is a lot of fun.

Starfield

★★★★★
46/50

169 hours
RPG Steam Beaten

A deeply flawed game. Sometimes tense and exciting but often bland and repetitive.

Chocobo GP

★★★★★
14 hours
Racing Switch Beaten

A cute little racer that tries to compete with Mario Kart 8 but falls short.

Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus?

★★★★★
17/17

3 hours
FMV Steam Completed

It's not a bad game but I expected more. Investigating relies too much on luck.

Summer 2023

Professor Layton and the Last Specter

★★★★
37 hours
Puzzle-Adventure DS Beaten

A great conclusion to the series on DS and once again, high quality puzzles.

Chained Echoes

★★★★
52 hours
RPG Game Pass Beaten

If you're into 2D pixel art RPGs, this one is a must-play (but it's overwhelming at times).

Dordogne

★★★★
5 hours
Adventure Game Pass Beaten

A cozy and beautiful game set near my home region.

Ghost Files 2: Memory of a Crime

★★★★
23/23

6 hours
HOG Steam Completed

Surprisingly, this HOG isn't so far-fetched and ridiculous!

Planet of Lana

★★★★★
5 hours
Action Game Pass Beaten

I found its appeal very limited despite the beautiful visuals.

Spring 2023

I usually have more time to play games in spring and this year was no exception. I've subscribed to Game Pass for the first time and it might just be the solution to my backlog problem. As you can see below, I've been busy and managed to beat some games I'd been playing for months like Zelda or Ring Fit Adventure (which I keep playing, of course). I really enjoyed the coziness of the new Coffee Talk and the 3D Adventure Time game was a very nice surprise. I have quite a few games in-progress which I'll try to beat over the summer but I'm not putting any pressure on myself. Hope you have a great summer and see you in September!

Ring Fit Adventure

≥ 65 hours
Switch Beaten
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

54 hours
Wii Beaten
Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly

12 hours
Game Pass Beaten 34%
Chorus

24 hours
Game Pass Beaten 81%
Adventure Time: Pirates of the Enchiridion

11 hours
Steam #1 Completed
The Legend of Tianding

8 hours
Game Pass Beaten 67%
Bayonetta

8 hours
Steam Beaten 32%
Exo One

3 hours
Game Pass Beaten 27%
Somerville

5 hours
Game Pass Beaten 25%
Umurangi Generation

4 hours
Game Pass Beaten 46%

Winter 2022

I haven't posted in a while because I've decided to switch from monthly posts to quarterly ones. I feel it gives me more flexibility and shows my progress a little better. Anyway, I'm pretty happy with how I've played so far this year. There weren't many disappointments and sinking time into ESO and Twilight Princess has been a blast. I guess my objective for the next quarter will be to beat all those unfinished games and play some new ones on the Switch.

Wintermoor Tactics Club

17 hours
Steam Beaten 79%
The Complex

2 hours
Steam Beaten 35%
Adventure of a Lifetime

6 hours
Steam Completed
Five Dates

4 hours
Steam Beaten 46%
Endless Fables 4: Shadow Within

4 hours
Steam Completed
Gear.Club Unlimited

≥ 30 hours
Switch Completed
Apotheon

5 hours
Steam Dropped

Fall 2022

First, I wish you all the best for 2023 when it comes and hope you'll get the upper hand over your backlog!
This fall, my gaming time was spread over a lot of games but I still managed to beat quite a few. To keep things simple, I'm not going to publish any stats for 2022 as they are dreadful (but not nearly as bad as 2021's) and I'm not going set any precise objectives for 2023 either. I'll just try to focus on the stuff I already own.

Potion Permit

38 hours
Steam Completed
Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen

52 hours
Steam Beaten 85%
Kirby Star Allies

≥ 10 hours
Switch Beaten
Sumire

7 hours
Steam Beaten 79% Review
Psycho-Pass: Mandatory Happiness

18 hours
Steam Beaten 52%
Samurai Shodown

≥ 10 hours
Switch Beaten
Dry Drowning

10 hours
itch.io Beaten
F-Zero: GP Legend

10 hours
Game Boy Advance Beaten
Super Mario Land

1 hour
Game Boy Completed
Arietta of Spirits

5 hours
Steam Beaten 93%
Airoheart

28 hours
Steam Beaten 80%
Song of Iron

2 hours
Steam Dropped Review

September 2022

Not much to report this month except that the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater remake is excellent and just as fun as the originals. About two years ago, I backed Airoheart, which was released yesterday, and I'm really excited to play it this month.

  • Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2

    Switch

    25+ hours

  • STAR WARS™: The Force Unleashed™ Ultimate Sith Edition

    Steam

    9 hours

  • The Journey Down: Chapter Three

    Steam

    4 hours

August 2022

True to my decision of cutting my gaming time to enjoy other activities, I don't have much to show for August. However, the game I played is the first (of two) I backed on Kickstarter and despite some slight narrative and translation issues, it was pretty good. See ya in a month!

  • One Last Crane

    Steam

    14 hours

July 2022

I didn't play much in July but did some serious soul-searching. Without going into details, the conclusion is that video games simply use up too much of my free time and I can't keep up with the growth of my backlog. For those two reasons, I've decided to leave SteamGifts, stay away from games deals websites and just take my sweet time enjoying the games I already have. An immediate consequence is that I'm going to fail the 2022 goals I had set for myself, which were all about numbers. I'm going to scrap the lot and replace them with the simple wish to finish the year with fewer games in my backlog than I have now.

  • Kirby: Planet Robobot

    3DS

    21 hours

June 2022

I don't have much to report for June except that one of my objectives for this year (spend no more than 100 euros on games) is now in a fail state :/ Too many good bundles and interesting bargains, I guess. I'll have to be careful and seriously work on the backlog during the second half of the year if I don't want to fail all my other objectives.

  • Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser's Minions

    3DS

    26 hours

  • Road 96

    Steam

    12 hours

  • Arcade Spirits

    itch.io

    8 hours

  • Ame no Marginal -Rain Marginal-

    Steam

    3 hours

May 2022

May in one word: variety. Longish games, short ones, good ones and meh ones. The highlight is definitely Citizen Sleeper. I hardly ever buy games on release but since I liked In Other Waters very much, I was really curious about what its dev would pull off next. And boy, is it good! I've also dropped my first game this year, Sniper Elite, which I found so repetitive that I couldn't bring myself to finish it.

  • Citizen Sleeper

    Steam Review

    17 hours

  • Observation

    Steam

    7 hours

  • Star Wars Battlefront

    Origin (EA Play)

    3 hours

  • One Night Stand

    itch.io

    1 hour

  • Heavy Rain

    Steam

    10 hours

  • Sunlight

    itch.io

    0.5 hours

  • Endless Fables 3: Dark Moor

    Steam

    4 hours

  • Sniper Elite

    Steam

    10 hours

Statistics