Kubi's killing the backlog! kubikill’s profile

Hello! I'm Jakub.

I make web things, like to play games and have terrible spending habits. I can play just about any game, as long as it's not either a dating sim, a horror game or Bad Rats.
I usually stick to singleplayer games but I'm down to play something multiplayer if someone's interested.

Game strategy: Complete main story and most (or all) unique side content.
Go for 100% achievements only if the achievements are fun to get and aren't too difficult and time-consuming.

Rating system:

★★★★★★ - Masterpiece! One of my favorites.
★★★★★ - Loved it! Maybe not perfect but still just as amazing.
★★★★ - Really liked it! There were some nitpicks but nothing too major.
★★★ - Liked it! Not a jaw dropper, but not that bad either.
★★ - It was okay. Could've been better.
★ - Not worth playing.

Uplay

100% (14/14)
Click to expand
Game Playtime/Achievements
Assassin's Creed 0 hours, N/A
Assassin's Creed II 0 hours, N/A
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood 0 hours, N/A
Assassin's Creed Revelations 0 hours, N/A
Assassin's Creed III 0 hours, 0/64
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag 0 hours, 0/60
Assassin's Creed Rogue 0 hours, N/A
Assassin's Creed Unity 0 hours, N/A
Assassin's Creed Syndicate 0 hours, N/A
Beyond Good and Evil 0 hours, N/A
Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon 0 hours, 0/19
Far Cry 4 0 hours, N/A
Watch Dogs 0 hours, 0/48
Watch Dogs 2 0 hours, 0/55

GOG

100% (7/7)
Click to expand
Game Playtime/Achievements
Brigador Up-Armored Edition 0 hours, N/A
Control: Ultimate Edition 0 hours, N/A
Fallout 2 0 hours, N/A
Fallout Tactics 0 hours, N/A
Ghostrunner 0 hours, N/A
Seven: Enhanced Edition 0 hours, N/A
Wasteland 2 Director's Cut 0 hours, N/A

Itch.io

100% (14/14)
Click to expand
Game Playtime/Achievements
A Dance of Fire and Ice 0 hours, N/A
Button City 0 hours, N/A
Death and Taxes 0 hours, N/A
El Tango de la Muerte 0 hours, N/A
Fit For A King 0 hours, N/A
Flux 0 hours, N/A
Glittermitten Grove 0 hours, N/A
Long Gone Days 0 hours, N/A
LOVE 0 hours, N/A
Pyre 0 hours, N/A
Resynth 0 hours, N/A
Quadrilateral Cowboy 0 hours, N/A
Summer in Mara 0 hours, N/A
Windosill 0 hours, N/A

Epic Games Store

100% (31/31)
Click to expand
Game Playtime/Achievements
Anodyne 2: Return To Dust 0 hours, N/A
A Short Hike 0 hours, N/A
Ape Out 0 hours, N/A
Axiom Verge 0 hours, N/A
BioShock: The Collection 0 hours, N/A
Celeste 0 hours, N/A
City of Brass 0 hours, N/A
Dark Deity 0 hours, N/A
Enter the Gungeon 0 hours, N/A
INSIDE 0 hours, N/A
Into The Breach 0 hours, N/A
Metro 2033 Redux 0 hours, N/A
Mutant Year Zero Road to Eden 0 hours, N/A
Mutazione 0 hours, N/A
Night in the Woods 0 hours, N/A
Rise of the Tomb Raider 0 hours, N/A
Sable 0 hours, N/A
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun 0 hours, N/A
Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition 0 hours, N/A
Slime Rancher 0 hours, N/A
Sundered Eldritch Edition 0 hours, N/A
The Long Dark 0 hours, N/A
The Spectrum Retreat 0 hours, N/A
The Witness 0 hours, N/A
The Textorcist 0 hours, N/A
Thimbleweed Park 0 hours, N/A
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator 0 hours, N/A
Towerfall Ascension 0 hours, N/A
What Remains of Edith Finch 0 hours, N/A
while True: learn() 0 hours, N/A
Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair 0 hours, N/A

Legacy/completed backlogs

Xbox Game Pass

92.6% (25/27)
3.7% (1/27)
3.7% (1/27)
Click to expand
Game Playtime/Achievements
AI: The Somnium Files 4★ 32 hours, 34/15
A Plague Tale: Innocence 5★ ~16 hours, 35/35
As Dusk Falls 5★ 7 hours, 25/50
Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling 6★ 43.3 hours, 30/30
Call of the Sea 4★ 3.9 hours, 16/34
Coffee Talk 5★ 4.5 hours, 16/24
Dicey Dungeons 5★ 23.6 hours, 31/53
Donut County 4★ ~2 hours, N/A
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition 4★ ~9 hours, N/A
Hades 6★ 75.8 hours, 43/49
Halo: The Master Chief Collection 1★ ~5 hours, 0/700
Hitman Trilogy 4★ 42.5 hours, 26/83
Katana ZERO 5★ ~5 hours, N/A
Last Call BBS 5★ 10.5 hours, 5/10
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy 5★ 20.8 hours, 50/58
NieR:Automata BECOME AS GODS Edition 6★ 30.5 hours, 31/48
Octopath Traveler 3★ ~64 hours, 65/88
Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition 6★ ~10 hours, N/A
Psychonauts 2 6★ ~30 hours, 57/57
Rain On Your Parade 5★ 4.3 hours, 8/22
Tetris Effect: Connected 6★ ~5 hours, 13/42
The Forgotten City 6★ 7.8 hours, 27/40
The Pedestrian 6★ 3.7 hours, 10/10
Unpacking 5★ 4.5 hours, 19/25
VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action 5★ ~15 hours, 33/33
Wolfenstein: The New Order 5★ 11.6 hours, N/A
Wolfenstein: The Old Blood 4★ 6.7 hours, N/A

Nintendo 3DS

96.3% (26/27)
3.7% (1/27)
Click to expand
Game Playtime
BoxBoy! 4★ ~6 hours
BoxBoxBoy! 4★ ~5 hours
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 4★ Also on PC 3 hours
Fire Emblem: Awakening 5★ 60.3 hours
Fire Emblem Fates 4★ 134 hours
Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia 6★ 49.1 hours
Gunman Clive 4★ Also on PC 1.1 hours
Gunman Clive 2 4★ Also on PC ~1 hour
Kirby: Planet Robobot 4★ 9 hours
Kirby: Triple Deluxe 4★ Challenge Me! 9.5 hours
Ikachan 3★ Also on PC ~1 hour
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team 4★ 31.5 hours
New Super Mario Bros. 2 4★ 9 hours
Paper Mario: Sticker Star 1★ 3 hours
Picross 3D: Round 2 4★ 41.4 hours
Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy 5★ 22 hours
Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask 4★ 21 hours
Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney 4★ 22.9 hours
Rhythm Heaven Megamix 4★ 7.1 hours
Rhythm Thief and the Emperor's Treasure 3★ 6.5 hours
River City: Tokyo Rumble 4★ 4 hours
SteamWorld Heist 5★ Also on PC 11.5 hours
Super Mario 3D Land 5★ 10 hours
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D 5★ 26 hours
Ultimate NES Remix 4★ 8.8 hours
WarioWare Gold 5★ 9.3 hours
Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma 5★ Also on PC 26 hours

EA Desktop

100.0% (9/9)
Click to expand
Game Playtime/Achievements
A Way Out EA Play 6★ 8 hours, N/A
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Origin Access 5★ ~30 hours, N/A
Brothers - a Tale of Two Sons Origin Access 4★ ~2 hours, N/A
Deponia Doomsday Origin Access 4★ ~11 hours, N/A
Mass Effect 3 EA Play 6★ ~63 hours, N/A
Mirror's Edge Origin Access 4★ ~5 hours, N/A
Mirror's Edge: Catalyst EA Play 4★ 12.1 hours, N/A
The Saboteur Origin Access 4★ ~21 hours, N/A
Unravel EA Play 4★ 7.5 hours, N/A
kubikill on Steam kubikill on SteamGifts

June - September 2023 Progress Jump to next post

Finished games:

Unfinished games:

Current progress

36.7% (258/703)
12.5% (88/703)
4.6% (32/703)
46.2% (325/703)

does not include games from the "won't play" list and non-Steam backlogs

Notes

I released a new BLAEO+ update in September that adds ProtonDB and Steam Deck Verified integrations, as well as blacklist and auto list sorting features. I’m currently working on a way to automatically categorize games by their HLTB times, something PoP members will really appreciate ;) sadly i was a little too late for this cycle but it will be ready before the next!
After that, I think that will be it for BLAEO+ updates since I’m out of ideas, save for some bugfixes or improvements for existing features. That being said, if you have any feedback or suggestions, I’ll appreciate it if you post it in the BLAEO+ thread on the Steam group.

2 months ago* 12 comments

May 2023 Progress Jump to next post

Finished games:

Unfinished games:

Current progress

36.1% (247/685)
12.3% (84/685)
4.8% (33/685)
46.9% (321/685)

does not include games from the "won't play" list and non-Steam backlogs

Notes

Lots of started new games, but not lots of finished games this month. Other than that, a lot of time went into playing TF2’s Operation Voltaic Violence community event, and I also did some work on the ProtonDB integration for BLAEO+ - hopefully I can release an update with it this month.

That’s all for now. Thanks for checking out my post!

6 months ago 0 comments

March-April 2023 Progress Jump to next post

Finished games:

Unfinished games:

Current progress

36.4% (246/675)
12.3% (83/675)
4.4% (30/675)
46.8% (316/675)

does not include games from the "won't play" list and non-Steam backlogs

Notes

Last 2 months weren’t that productive in terms of my backlog progress, as most of the time went either into playing TF2 or making BLAEO+. Fortunately I’ll have more days off work this month so hopefully I can go back to business as usual.

BLAEO+

Earlier this month I released BLAEO+, a userscript for BLAEO that adds some new features and QoL improvements to the site, including How Long to Beat integration, filtering games by tags or modes (SP, MP, CO-OP), saving/loading post drafts, previewing comments before adding them, QoL improvements for mobile, etc. I’ll be slowly adding new features to it over the next few months, like ProtonDB integration, Steam Deck Verified icons, adding games to tags automatically by playtime or other criteria, etc.
I’d love to hear what you think about it, and if there are any other useful features you’d like to see added.

Install BLAEO+
Source code on GitHub
Discussion thread on BLAEO Steam group

That’s all for now. Thanks for checking out my post!

8 months ago 12 comments

February 2023 Progress Jump to next post

Finished games:

Unfinished games:

Current progress

36.2% (241/666)
12.2% (81/666)
4.7% (31/666)
47.0% (313/666)

does not include games from the "won't play" list and non-Steam backlogs

Notes

Made some pretty decent progress this month. Like a Dragon: Ishin! ended up taking most of my attention this month (even though it came out on the 19th…) and it looks like it’s going to remain this way for March too. I’ve also been working on a little interesting project I’m hoping to reveal sometime this month :)

That’s all for now. Thanks for checking out my post!

9 months ago 6 comments

January 2023 Progress Jump to next post

Finished games:

83.3 hours
33/40
Screenshots
★★★★★★
Played on Steam

A prequel to Gothic 1 made as a total conversion mod for Gothic 2. Calling it a mod doesn’t do it justice because it straight up looks like a full game expansion or hell, even an entire new game, all made with love, care and passion to be as much of a true Gothic experience as possible, from the prologue on the ship all the way to the ending.

The world feels alive as pretty much everything was placed by hand with purpose encouraging exploration, quests can be completed in many ways and which way to complete them does matter and major changes occur as you go between chapters. There is enough content for multiple playthroughs where you can take different choices, side with different factions or go for a different playstyle.

As for gameplay though, TCoM makes a lot of improvements over Gothic 2. You no longer have to save items that permanently increase your stats for the endgame to get most benefit, you no longer need to unequip stat increasing items to spend less LP on increasing stats, there is better fast travel, you can make food/potions in bulk and so on… Some things just can’t be changed though. Combat didn’t change much from Gothic 2 and the control scheme is still just as cumbersome (but it can work well on a controller if you install a mod for it). Difficulty-wise it seems a bit easier than the Gothic games, however you are still going to get your ass kicked if you’re not careful.

Also I’m really surprised how this game is fully dubbed (only in Polish though, but still), even more so the dub is actually decent, however there are a few situations where the characters’ speech doesn’t fit the situation at hand. The soundtrack is really good as well, some songs are remixes of music from Gothic games and some songs are entirely new.

Unfortunately though this still runs on the janky, ages-old Gothic 2 engine so getting it to run well on modern PCs can be a real pain sometimes, and you may need to do some extra modding for a better experience. For my playthrough I installed the D3D11 renderer as well as Union and a few Union plugins, including zGamePad for controller support, zBugFixes for engine fixes, zMarkItems to mark new inventory items and zNoFriendlyFire to avoid accidentally attacking friendly NPCs. With that setup I could play with very few issues and and 3 crashes.

And if that weren’t enough, the devs are still not done with the game, as they are working on a 2.0 update with new content and improvements as well as hardcore difficulty.

I really love this game, maybe even more than Gothic itself. I even went and donated to them because I just want them to keep up the good work and I’d love to see any future projects if they do end up making any. If you liked Gothic then this is a must-play, but if you didn’t but like similar hardcore RPGs then you’re gonna have a great time with this game. Heavily recommended.


Unfinished games:

Next up

  • The Adventure Pals

    0 hours playtime

    0 of 31 achievements

  • Like a Dragon: Ishin!

    0 hours playtime

    no achievements

  • Looking forward to The Adventure Pals, a long time ago I played a Flash game prequel of it which was fun. PoP pick from Andy.
  • Still can’t believe Yakuza EKHEM Like a Dragon: Ishin is coming to the West. I’ve always wanted to play the OG but couldn’t since there was no English translation. Can’t wait for it to come out! PoP pick from emymer.

Current progress

36.2% (241/666)
12.2% (81/666)
4.7% (31/666)
47.0% (313/666)

does not include games from the "won't play" list and non-Steam backlogs

Notes

Time to get back in habit of regular BLAEO posts. I’ve started this year by joining Play or Pay and completing a few of assigned games, and spending a lot of time playing Pre-Fortress 2 (14h according to in-game stats). Feels like I’ve discovered TF2 anew and it’s so much fun… which isn’t good if I really wanna focus on my backlog lol

That’s all for now. Thanks for checking out my post!

10 months ago 4 comments

Year 2022 Progress Jump to next post

Finished games:

  • AI: The Somnium Files

    32 hours playtime

    34 of 45 achievements

    ★★★★☆☆ GAME
    PASS

  • As Dusk Falls

    7 hours playtime

    25 of 50 achievements

    ★★★★★☆ GAME
    PASS

  • A Way Out

    7.5 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★★★ GAME
    PASS

  • Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling

    43.3 hours playtime

    30 of 30 achievements

    ★★★★★★ GAME
    PASS

  • Coffee Talk

    4.4 hours playtime

    16 of 24 achievements

    ★★★★★☆ GAME
    PASS

  • Dicey Dungeons

    23.6 hours playtime

    31 of 53 achievements

    ★★★★★☆ GAME
    PASS

  • Dishonored RHCP

    25.6 hours playtime

    35 of 80 achievements

    ★★★★★★

  • Judgment

    94.6 hours playtime

    47 of 47 achievements

    ★★★★★★

  • Kirby: Planet Robobot

    9 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Last Call BBS

    10.7 hours playtime

    5 of 10 achievements

    ★★★★★☆ GAME
    PASS

  • Lost Judgment

    112.2 hours playtime

    56 of 56 achievements

    ★★★★★★

  • Mafia: Definitive Edition

    12.1 hours playtime

    32 of 43 achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy

    20.9 hours playtime

    50 of 58 achievements

    ★★★★★☆ GAME
    PASS

  • Max Payne 3

    10.5 hours playtime

    24 of 67 achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • McPixel 3

    6.0 hours playtime

    93 of 93 achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

    14.9 hours playtime

    27 of 60 achievements

    ★★★★★★

  • Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance

    14 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • Say No! More

    2.1 hours playtime

    18 of 22 achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Serious Sam Fusion 2017 (beta)

    44.3 hours playtime

    66 of 76 achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated

    10.7 hours playtime

    32 of 32 achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • The Henry Stickmin Collection

    5.6 hours playtime

    82 of 82 achievements

    ★★★★★★

  • The Pedestrian

    3.7 hours playtime

    10 of 10 achievements

    ★★★★★★ GAME
    PASS

  • The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe

    7.0 hours playtime

    9 of 11 achievements

    ★★★★★★

  • UnMetal

    8.7 hours playtime

    35 of 40 achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • Unpacking

    4.5 hours playtime

    19 of 25 achievements

    ★★★★★☆ GAME
    PASS

  • Uplink

    16.1 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • Unravel

    7.5 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆ GAME
    PASS

  • Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

    16.3 hours playtime

    28 of 80 achievements

    ★★★★☆☆ GAME
    PASS

Unfinished games:

Current progress

36.0% (239/664)
12.0% (80/664)
4.8% (32/664)
47.1% (313/664)

does not include games from the "won't play" list and non-Steam backlogs

Progress 1 year ago

48.6% (291/599)
1.8% (11/599)
4.0% (24/599)
45.6% (273/599)

Notes

There goes an another year of backlog fighting. This year saw me mostly playing (and trying, but never finishing) a lot of Game Pass games, finishing my 3DS backlog (by cutting it short - I’ve lost interest in a lot of its games) and starting a new era of backlog fighting as the Steam Deck is now here to help me. Since my Game Pass subscription is ending and I’ve played everything of interest on the 3DS, I am going back to my Steam backlog full-time for this year, and I joined Play or Pay to have an extra incentive to keep playing. I also want to go back to regular monthly progress reports, as I didn’t write a single report in 2022 aside for this one.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading and have a happy new year!

11 months ago 5 comments

December 2021 Progress Jump to next post

Finished games:

7.8 hours
27/40
★★★★★☆
GAME
PASS Played on XGP

An adventure game with emphasis on narrative. It is based on a Skyrim mod of the same name and inherits some of Skyrim’s features and quirks, but is now a complete, standalone game with its own assets and also additional content, improvements and polish. I’ve never played the original mod version, but I did hear that it got a lot of praise.

+++ Excellent writing and story with many twists and fleshed-out characters.
++ Well-designed puzzles. I had no problem solving them on my own by staying patient and exploring as much as possible, and the in-game task-list prevents you from being lost as you’ll always know what still needs to be solved and done.
++ Impressive voice-acting. How’d they manage to find such great voice actors??
+ Respects your time when it comes to chores. Once you figure out certain tasks, you won’t have to do them again and again on each loop as the game will give you a way to skip them.
+ Good visuals (that can be captured with the game’s own photo mode)
● The combat feels tacked on, and the ability to kick enemies away makes it trivial, but it’s serviceable. I’m guessing they kept it from the Skyrim mod. Fortunately, the combat is used in only one segment (which is optional at that, if I recall correctly?).
- The game crashed or freezed a few times on me when loading saves.
- It doesn’t seem well-optimized. On a GTX 1660 Super with max settings 1080p/60fps, the game would nearly max out my GPU, regardless of whether I’m walking around the city or talking to someone without much happening in background.
- Some characters clip through their own clothing.

This is a fantastic game - I heavily recommend it if you like unraveling mysteries or just like history or philosophy. I would also recommend going in blind. I’m excited to see what Modern Storyteller does next as this is a great game to debut with.


  • Baba Is You

    10 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon

    3 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Hades

    76 hours playtime

    43 of 49 achievements

    ★★★★★★ GAME
    PASS

  • This Is the Police 2

    ~22 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Wolfenstein: The Old Blood

    8.1 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆ GAME
    PASS

Unfinished games:

  • A Way Out

    2 hours playtime

    no achievements

    GAME
    PASS

  • Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling

    4.3 hours playtime

    2 of 30 achievements

    GAME
    PASS

  • Dicey Dungeons

    13 hours playtime

    16 of 53 achievements

    GAME
    PASS

  • Kirby: Planet Robobot

    5 hours playtime

    no achievements

  • SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated

    5.4 hours playtime

    12 of 32 achievements

  • I started playing A Way Out with my friend a couple days ago and so far we’re having a blast! I’m also surprised at how well the game works with poor network quality - the weak connection icon shows at all times but we haven’t experienced any lag yet.
  • I didn’t play Bug Fables for long, but my first impressions are very good so far, and it feels like a proper successor to the first 2 Paper Mario games.
  • Still going through Dicey Dungeons. Managed to complete first 3 episodes with each character so far.
  • I received SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom as a Stealthy Santa gift from Cece09 (thanks again :D). I used to watch the show back in the day so it was nice to return to it by playing this game. I’ve never played the original so I don’t know how the remaster compares to it, but the visuals look nice and the gameplay seems good (though I wish you could move a bit faster). What I didn’t like is that some voice lines get repeated A LOT so it gets annoying after a while. Still, I’m looking forward to seeing more of this game.

Current progress

48.6% (291/599)
1.8% (11/599)
4.0% (24/599)
45.6% (273/599)

does not include games from the "won't play" list and non-Steam backlogs

Progress 1 year ago

38.7% (229/592)
6.9% (41/592)
4.1% (24/592)
50.3% (298/592)

Notes

Another year of backlog fighting completed. This year my Steam backlog didn’t get as much progress as before, mainly because I spent a lot of time playing games from Xbox Game Pass and also on the 3DS, but at least my wishlist grew smaller thanks to it. This will continue for this year as my XGP sub ends mid-January 2023 and I want to play all of the games I’m interested in before my sub ends or they get removed from XGP entirely (currently there are ~30 games left, but that number will most likely increase as new games are added to XGP each month). I will also try to complete the 3DS backlog this year (10 games left currently) so I can pass the console to its next owner and make room for the Steam Deck (assuming I can get it this year… but I’m not 100% sure of it). I’ll also continue limiting my game purchases to a minimum because of Game Pass.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading and have a great year! :D

almost 2 years ago 7 comments

August - November 2021 Progress Jump to next post

Finished games:

  • Blaster Master Zero

    6.5 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • BoxBoxBoy!

    5 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Gears of War: Ultimate Edition

    ~9 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆ GAME
    PASS

  • Gunman Clive 2

    1 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Lara Croft GO

    ~8 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Mirror's Edge: Catalyst

    12.1 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • NieR:Automata

    36.5 hours playtime

    31 of 48 achievements

    ★★★★★★ GAME
    PASS

  • One Finger Death Punch 2

    10.2 hours playtime

    50 of 63 achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • PC Building Simulator

    7.3 hours playtime

    13 of 74 achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Psychonauts 2

    31 hours playtime

    57 of 57 achievements

    ★★★★★★ GAME
    PASS

  • Rain on Your Parade

    5 hours playtime

    8 of 22 achievements

    ★★★★★★ GAME
    PASS

  • Rhythm Thief & The Emperor's Treasure

    5 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★☆☆☆

  • Risen

    29.4 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Shadow Warrior

    18.1 hours playtime

    50 of 92 achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

    68.2 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward

    29.4 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★★☆

31 hours
57/57
★★★★★★
GAME
PASS Played on XGP

A third-person platformer. This was a long-awaited release, as the original game released in 2005 (and there was also a short VR spin-off that released in 2017, but it was more of a point-and-click), and many have waited for a proper continuation of the story. Now, after years of accumulating hype, the sequel is finally complete and honestly, it surpassed my expectations. It was an amazing experience to play it from start to finish.

+++ Cleverly designed, mind-blowing levels brimming with creativity and surprises. PSI King's Sensorium was easily my favorite. I mean, come on, it has a Jack Black song in it!
+++ Well-written story with great comedy. I exhausted every single dialogue option I had.. the dialogues were so good, I didn't want to miss out on any of them!
++ Great soundtrack that surpasses the original game's music
++ Beautiful artstyle, modernized while still keeping the charm of the original art
+ Combat was OK, definitely not the game's strongest suit since you're not going to play the game just for the combat anyway, but it's serviceable
| Accessibility options available which can disable fall damage, enable invincibility or make combat sequences easier and faster to complete. There are also options for larger subtitles, easier-to-read fonts and color-blind modes.
| There are minor stuttering issues when breaking some objects, it doesn't really happen often though. Also that recent update might've fixed it but I'm not 100% sure.
- Having only 4 slots for 9 powers total made switching between a bit inconvenient. Fortunately, the game at least lets you enable additional controls that allow you to use a certain power without having it equipped, freeing up a slot for one of the 8 other powers.
- Finding all figments is still quite a pain, just like in the original. Actually, not anymore! A recent update added some extra tools to make it much more convenient.


Psychonauts 2 deserves all of the praise it got in their entirety, and I think it has a fair shot at becoming the GOTY 2021. I absolutely would love to see more of the Psychonauts series, and if they need an another 16 years to make a game of such quality, then so be it. A must-play for anyone.


5 hours
9/22
★★★★★★
GAME
PASS Played on XGP

A comedy puzzle adventure game. The game calls itself an "unique blend between Untitled Goose Game, Donut County and Katamari" and I don't think that there's a better way to describe it. I found this game to be a good stress-reliever and it hasn't failed to improve my mood yet. I might just replay this game the next time I'm feeling down - I happen to love the kind of humor this game has :D

+++ It's filled to the brim with great jokes that can get even the saddest to chuckle.
++ None of the jokes overstay their welcome, and the game keeps that up from the beginning up to the very end!
++ Creative levels, full with variety when it comes to objectives. At no point in the game I felt like the game was repetitive.
+ Lots of references to other games and various other media.
+ Simple, but cute artstyle.
| Starts out a bit slow, but it picks up after you gain the thunder powerup
| Short, but the game makes up for it by primarily focusing on quality over quantity
| Very easy, accessible for everyone regardless of their age or skill level


Heavily recommended if you're looking for a game to chill with and have some quality laughs while at it. There's also a DLC coming out for it this month with more levels and powers if you end up needing more!


29.4 hours
None
★★★★☆☆
Played on Steam

Risen is an action-RPG, created as a spiritual successor to the Gothic series made by the same developers. Apparently there was a dispute that caused Piranha Bytes to lose the rights to the Gothic series temporarily, resulting in Gothic 4 being created by a different studio, while Piranha Bytes went on to start a new series. And honestly, this game should've been the true Gothic 4, as it inherits a lot of merits and flaws the Gothic games had.

++ Very satisfying progression. You can feel that you're getting better with each lesson you take from a teacher.
++ Large, beautiful world, worthy of exploring every nook and cranny
+ Good replayability - there are 3 factions and you can choose to side with only one per playthrough, there are different fighting styles as well
+ While not without flaws, the combat is challenging and quite fun
+ Quests with lots of different ways to complete them
| Little to no handholding
| English voice acting isn't either particularly good or bad. It's just kinda there.
| The story isn't anything special, but it's good enough for you to care about it
- Choices don't really have any consequences in the long run
- Requires a lot of savescumming, as you'll die very often. Even if you don't mind that, it'll get annoying real quick, since...
- ...loading times are a bit long, even on a modern powerful PC with a SSD.
- Some bugs and general clunkiness is to be expected, especially without mods/patches. You need to cap the FPS to 60 (or 120?), as jumping and climbing tends to break if your frame rate goes higher than that.


I recommend playing this game if you like hardcore RPGs like Gothic. It could also serve as a good starting point for those who want to get into hardcore RPGs.
Thank you Cece09 for the gift!


Unfinished games:

  • Baba Is You

    ~5 hours playtime

    no achievements

  • Cookie Clicker

    208.6 hours playtime

    452 of 532 achievements

  • Dicey Dungeons

    3.5 hours playtime

    4 of 53 achievements

    GAME
    PASS

  • Hades

    37 hours playtime

    26 of 49 achievements

    GAME
    PASS

  • Kirby: Planet Robobot

    2 hours playtime

    no achievements

  • Baba Is You turned out to be really good, even if it makes me feel dumb in some levels. GAME IS FUN!
  • Damn it Cookie Clicker, I thought I freed myself from you already, until you showed up on Steam of all the places… and now I’m stuck in this rabbit hole again. Oh well, at least I can run it in the background while playing something else.
  • I’m surprised to see Dicey Dungeons actually making RNG fun… or maybe I’m just lucky? I only completed the first episodes for all characters so far, so my luck may still change. Either way, I’m enjoying it so far.
  • I thought I wouldn’t like Hades… which ended up being one of the biggest lies I’ve ever said. This game is a goddamn masterpiece. I already got to the credits but I’ll continue playing until I see the epilogue and complete a run with Extreme Measures 4.
  • Haven’t played too much of Kirby: Planet Robobot yet, but it seems like more of the same, but with an extra gimmick. It’s still fun to play, though.

Current progress

49.40% (289/585)
1.88% (11/585)
4.10% (24/585)
44.62% (261/585)

does not include games from the "won't play" list and non-Steam backlogs

Notes

It’s been 4 months since my last post and honestly, I’m disappointed in myself that I’ve let procrastination take control of me again, so I’ll work on getting the monthly schedule back up and running to stop the blog post backlog from pilling up again. But hey! It was JUST 4 months since last post! Not 7 months like with the previous one! That’s still an improvement! xD And I’ll have to wrap up this year somehow so that’s a nice way to force myself into making a post next month :D

I’ve changed the way I write reviews, starting with this post. Writing reviews takes me too long, even if I want to write something short, so I’ve been looking for a way to make it easier - so I decided that I’ll now write the pros, mehs/neutral traits and cons of a game in a list. I found it faster to do it that way, and it has a nice bonus of being more concise.

Also I added the XGP and Amazon platform icons to BLAEO Generators yesterday. I didn’t bother making a changelog since it’s such a small update, but I figured I’d at least mention it here.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

about 2 years ago 7 comments

January - July 2021 Progress Jump to next post

Finished games:

  • 140

    1.9 hours playtime

    5 of 8 achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Anodyne

    4.6 hours playtime

    3 of 6 achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • A Plague Tale: Innocence

    ~16 hours playtime

    35 of 35 achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • BoxBoy!

    ~6 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Call of the Sea

    3.9 hours playtime

    16 of 34 achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Donut County

    ~2 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Far from Noise

    4.7 hours playtime

    9 of 9 achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Flashback

    0.7 hours playtime

    1 of 12 achievements

    ★☆☆☆☆☆

  • Forager

    23.1 hours playtime

    103 of 103 achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • Frog Detective 2: The Case of the Invisible Wizard

    1.2 hours playtime

    6 of 6 achievements

    ★★★☆☆☆

  • Halo: The Master Chief Collection

    ~2 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★☆☆☆☆☆

  • Ikachan

    ~1 hour playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★☆☆☆

  • Katana ZERO

    ~5 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • Loot Box Quest

    3.1 hours playtime

    15 of 15 achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • macdows 95

    1.6 hours playtime

    13 of 13 achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • Mafia III: Definitive Edition

    39.3 hours playtime

    67 of 85 achievements

    ★★★☆☆☆

  • Mass Effect 2 (2010)

    49.0 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • Mass Effect 3

    ~65 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★★★

  • OCTOPATH TRAVELER

    ~64 hours playtime

    65 of 88 achievements

    ★★★☆☆☆

  • Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition

    ~10 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★★★

  • Peggle Deluxe

    2.9 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Princess Remedy in a World of Hurt

    0.8 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Rogue Legacy

    8.5 hours playtime

    18 of 29 achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • SHENZHEN I/O

    18.2 hours playtime

    6 of 6 achievements

    ★★★☆☆☆

  • Sparkle 2

    ~4 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • SteamWorld Heist

    11.5 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • Tetris Effect: Connected

    5 hours playtime

    13 of 42 achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • The Outer Worlds

    37.1 hours playtime

    48 of 68 achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition

    45.2 hours playtime

    44 of 52 achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action

    14.1 hours playtime

    33 of 33 achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • Wolfenstein: The New Order

    11.6 hours playtime

    no achievements

  • Yakuza 3 Remastered

    84.3 hours playtime

    50 of 50 achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • Yakuza 4 Remastered

    68.2 hours playtime

    47 of 47 achievements

    ★★★★★☆

  • Yakuza 5 Remastered

    133.4 hours playtime

    56 of 56 achievements

    ★★★★★★

  • Yakuza 6: The Song of Life

    54.2 hours playtime

    59 of 59 achievements

    ★★★★★★

39.3 hours
67/85
Screenshots
★★★☆☆☆
Played on Steam

I've been looking forward to try this game out for myself after I played Mafia II and heard many different things about III. It's not exactly a bad game, but I definitely wouldn't call this a Mafia game.

The biggest issue is that the game is very repetitive. Most of the game is just taking over the districts and doing the wiretaps, which gets boring real fast. The story missions that are sprinkled between the district takeovers are actually pretty good, though, especially the intro.

The enemy AI is braindead when it comes to stealth. It's so easy to just whistle and pick enemies one-by-one while the rest don't stop to think why all of those poor sobs who went to check out that weird sound haven't returned yet.

I personally disliked how Mafia III departed from the realism and the details the OG Mafia and Mafia II had. Police no longer go after you for breaking traffic laws (except for crashing into a police car), you can see enemies through walls, have slow-mo shooting (which is ridiculously OP combined with silenced weapons) and slow-mo driving for some reason and the city feels shallow as you can't visit restaurants to eat anymore, buy clothes at clothing shops or refuel your car at gas stations since the fuel mechanic was also removed entirely.

The game still has bugs even after the release of so-called "definitive edition". The infamous mirror bug is still there (link to ss), cutscenes sometimes get stuck on the first frame while audio continues playing, and other fairly rare but still possible occurrences such as cars spawning clipped through the ground, enemies shooting through their own cover, infinite loading screens and the minimap getting stuck with extreme zoom. I tried playing this game using a Steam Controller since it has native support for it but often some buttons wouldn't respond until I paused and unpaused the game with kb+m. Eventually I got fed up with it and just switched to kb+m and had no problems with controls since. Also the performance could've been better for the graphics Mafia 3 has.

What I can praise, however, is the soundtrack, voice acting, overall atmosphere and the accurate portrayal of racism in 1960s USA. The story doesn't exactly fit the "Mafia" name but it's good. The DLCs have some cool missions that help break up the repetitiveness of the district takeovers.

I wasn't sure whether to give this game 2 or 3 stars, but I chose to go with 3, thanks to the DLC missions. If you can deal with the repetitiveness and go in not expecting a Mafia game then it may be worth getting this game on a good discount. Otherwise I'd just recommend watching it as a game movie on Youtube.


37.1 hours
48/68
Screenshots
★★★★☆☆
Played on Steam

A open-world FPS-RPG from the same studio that made Fallout New Vegas. I was excited to see what did they make with this game, and I enjoyed it.

The game has a lot of gameplay similarities with Fallout New Vegas, but it feels a bit simplified. Still, it didn't stop me from having fun. The story that didn't take itself completely seriously was pretty good, but nothing special. The worlds were cool. I liked the conversation system that gives you lots of dialogue choices, ways to respond and often gives you skill checks to let you take advantage of the skills you have.

The drawbacks of this game is that it isn't that big. The planets aren't particularly huge and the main story is fairly short. The guns could've used more variety and the humor could've used a bit more work - it got a couple "heh"s out of me but not a single laugh out loud.

This game might not be the next Fallout but it's certainly a game worth trying for those who are into similar games. I'd like to see what they'll do with the sequel. I haven't played the DLC yet but I definitely will once I get the expansion pass someday.


49.0 hours
None
Screenshots
★★★★★☆
Played on Steam

Note: This is a review of a modded version of the original, non-LE game, mostly with texture and fix mods.

It's been about a year since I played ME1 so I thought it'd be a good time to continue the trilogy with ME2. ME1 was very good so I was really looking forward to ME2, and I was not disappointed.

ME2 took a large leap forwards, but it also took a few steps back. It was definitely much more polished than ME1 was, and the clunkiness was gone. The story is on around the same level as ME1 so it was great, but I regret putting off ME2 for too long because I already forgot about some things that happened in ME1 and I missed quite a lot of callbacks to the choices I made earlier. Gameplay, however, got simplified. While the first Mass Effect was too much of an RPG than a shooter, ME2 flipped it the other way around - less skills, less weapons, weapon/armor modifiers being replaced with general upgrades and the whole "landing on a planet and driving around it in a Mako" thing got replaced with not-so exciting planet scanning (except for a few DLC missions where you get to drive a cooler vehicle). At least the gunplay was much better and I didn't have to waste time converting my junk into omnigel. ME2 also introduces a new set of companions to recruit. I especially liked Mordin and Thane, but I also liked Legion, Kasumi, Grunt and maybe Jack.
I liked the suicide mission the most as it was quite a spectacular finale. I thought I'd get someone in my squad killed but fortunately, everyone made it out just fine!
The DLCs were good as well, especially Lair of the Shadow Broker and Kasumi - Stolen Memory.

Overall I really liked ME2. I chose to play ME3 immediately after so I wouldn't make that mistake with the callbacks again.
Thanks Cece09 for the gift!


65 hours
None
★★★★★★
Played on Xbox

Note: This is a review of a heavily modded version of the original, non-LE game, with mods such as Expanded Galaxy Mod, The Orikon Collection, Project Variety, JohnP's Alternate MEHEM and more.

An epic conclusion to an equally epic trilogy. ME3 feels like the most ambitious game out of the three, bringing the best of its 2 predecessors. While the ending remains fairly controversial, it still manages to provide a satisfying culmination of all that has happened to this point.

As for the gameplay, Bioware finally got the RPG-shooter balance nailed down on their third attempt. ME3, compared to ME2 has expanded skills, much more weapon variety, gun mods and still no wasting time on inventory management. Controls felt a little bit different than in ME2 but I got used to them quickly. Also it seems like there were a lot less neutral dialogue options in ME3 compared to ME1 or 2. The final mission was my favorite. It was thrilling to see all the war assets, all the favors I pulled across the trilogy come into play at that one battle, and, under great pressure, I was doing my absolute best to get through as fast as I could before I'd hear about some of my allies getting destroyed over the radio.

The Mass Effect trilogy are some of my favorite games now. I've found myself attached to the universe, to the lore and all my squadmates on the Normandy. It was an absolute joy to go through all of it and I'd consider it a must play for anyone. Next up is Andromeda. I know it was panned when it first came out but now people say that this game actually isn't that bad so I'm willing to check it out.

Oh, and since I couldn't upload the screenshots on Steam, I'll show them here instead, in separate non-spoiler and spoiler categories. Some of them are too good to just let them rot on my PC forever.


Unfinished games:

  • One Finger Death Punch 2

    1.6 hours playtime

    9 of 63 achievements

  • The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

    54.9 hours playtime

    no achievements

  • PC Building Simulator

    3.2 hours playtime

    11 of 74 achievements

  • Blaster Master Zero

    3 hours playtime

    no achievements

Current progress

47.56% (283/595)
1.68% (10/595)
4.20% (25/595)
46.55% (277/595)

does not include games from the "won't play" list and non-Steam backlogs

Notes

Long time no see

It’s been a while, BLAEO! It’s been 7 months since last post. I didn’t want that delay to go for that long but I just couldn’t bring myself to write all those overdue reviews. This month, I made it clear to myself that I would make a post no matter what but unfortunately, I had to rush it and cut the reviews for Octopath Traveler and the 4 Yakuza games. Wish I could make reviews for them too but its so hard to come up with the proper words for me without sounding like a broken record :/

So many games, so little time

I’ve decided to get a Xbox Game Pass sub since there was a way to get it cheap and it has a large library of games I’m interested in. Combined with the 5€ HB Choice sub, I won’t have to spend any more money on games for now as Game Pass, Choice and game trading will give me a steady source of new games until 2023. That being said, after taking a look at the Game Pass library and my backlog, I’ve realized that I most likely won’t be able to play every game I want in my lifetime, so I started cutting down my backlogs and my wishlist for games that I most likely won’t enjoy and from now on, I’ll check games more closely before deciding if I want to play them. I’ll stop trying to 100% every game I can and only 100% those I really like or those that don’t take much time to do so. I also went through my backlog and marked games I definitely won’t be coming back to after beating them as completed.

All hands on Deck

So Valve announced Steam Deck, a handheld PC which seems like exactly what I need. I can play all those indie games I already own and were in my backlog since forever, I can play XGP games and Epic Store freebies on it, I can stream demanding games from my gaming PC and I can even put emulators on it. It seems like a good replacement of my good ol’ laptop powered with an Intel HD 4000 and the 3DS. I made a reservation for the 256GB model but I made sure to get the Q1 2022 batch instead of the December one so I can check the reviews before I commit to the purchase. I should also go and start working on the 3DS backlog so I can sell the console and make room for the Deck.

A BLAEO Generators update + possible userscript?

It’s been nearly a year since the last BLAEO Generators update and it sure could use a few tweaks, fixes or even additions. I plan to release an update for it sometime in August so if there are any things that are bugging you, things you’d like to see added or improved then let me know either in the Steam group thread or in the comments below. Some features/fixes include rounded corners for the Bar, being able to hide playtime/achievements in Boxes, fix for the image not updating when using an AppID for a game you don’t own and more.
If I find some spare time, I also would like to look into making a new userscript for BLAEO, to add some improvements not already included in revilheart’s Enhanced BLAEO. Few things I’d like to add include a better post editor, an improved post save system from my older post save script, making game boxes with just one click and more. If you’d be interested in something like this or have some additional things you’d like to suggest, let me know in the comments.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

over 2 years ago* 16 comments

December 2020 Progress

Finished games:

92.5 hours
63/63
Screenshots
★★★★★★
Played on Steam

This is a soft reboot of the Yakuza series. It has the same setting but now has a new cast of characters and it changes the genre from 3D brawler to a turn-based JRPG. At first I was concerned about the gameplay change, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that those worries were unneccesary.

The combat is fun, there's a lot of variety in the attacks and some of them are just hilarious to watch, especially the Poundmates summons (like the Majima summon which is just NUTS). The turn-based mechanics have room of improvement though, like sometimes the camera doesn't move fast enough to show the enemy attacking one of your allies so it's harder to time perfect blocks. They also could've done more with the "press the right buttons to deal/block damage!" thing, like add more variety to the button combos. I still prefer the old brawler combat, but I won't mind if they keep and improve the turn-based gameplay in the next games.

The story is awesome, definitely one of the best in the series. Ichiban Kasuga, the new protagonist grew on me very fast and to be honest, I'd love to see more of him in the next Yakuza games instead of Kiryu. Too bad he didn't win in the BLAEO Game Awards though :/ My only nitpick is with the one particular "what are the odds?" twist near the end (the whole babies in the coin lockers thing). It feels a bit stupid but then again, there were dumber twists before. The story is newcomer-friendly but there are lots of references to past Yakuza games that series veterans will recognize easily. Substories are still a mix of crazy, hilarious and heartwarming moments, as always. It's difficult to pick the best substory as there's just so many good ones. drink the milk, it's worth it
The English dub is surprisingly good. It still doesn't come as close as the Japanese dub, but it's great and the VAs did a solid job, especially Darryl Kurylo who returned as Kiryu's VA.

The new city is okay, it has some pretty good sights, however it's not as densely packed as Kamurocho since it's much larger. Still, it's nice to not be roaming around Kamurocho yet again for most of the game. Most of the minigames are the same as in Kiwami 2, but the new ones are definitely welcome, like the can-collecting minigame or the movie theater minigame. The music is really good too, so many great bangers! It's nearly on the same level as Yakuza 0's soundtrack.

The DLCs are a waste of money. They mostly consist of overpriced cosmetic stuff or P2W item packs. Only the Job Set (and maaaybe the Management Mode Set) are worth it, but you won't miss much if you don't have them. At least the NG+ DLC that is a thing for the Japanese PS4 version is now built into the main game.

The performance on PC is decent, I could run this game on a i5-10400F and a GTX 1660 Super at 1080p 60fps with almost all settings set at highest, but with disabled motion blur, depth of field and multisampling. The framerate would dip into the 50s sometimes when walking around the park in the north-east part of Ijincho or during certain attacks with lots of effects/particles, but other than that, it was stable.

Summing things up, I think that the developers did an amazing job with this game. It's easily one of the best games in the series, enjoyable by both newcomers and veterans alike and it's well-worth the full price. Now I just gotta wait for the remastered collection to release…


Shakedown: Hawaii

15.5 hours, 25 of 25 achievements
★★★★☆☆

A sequel to Retro City Rampage and spiritual successor to GTA 1/2. I was excited for this game when it was announced as I loved RCR. It's a great open-world game, but not as good as RCR.

Gameplay is mostly the same, so if you played RCR, you'll feel right at home. There are some differences, like new different weapons, the ability to swim and use boats and there are now 3 protagonists, which honestly feel useless as you spend most of the game playing as the CEO anyway and none of the characters have any unique gameplay traits. Also there's now a business incremental-like minigame where you buy properties on the island to earn as much money as possible. It's as simple as "buy properties and watch the daily revenue go up", and it's fun to watch the map as the buildings on it turn gold over time.
I really liked the business world satire in this game. The game makes fun of pretty much every single modern trend or shady business practice: subscription models, fine prints, abusing legal loopholes, convenience fees or even lootboxes.
There's over 100 story missions to do but they're all short, like they were designed for handhelds. They were also fairly easy on normal difficulty (which is the highest difficulty at the moment of writing), until the last few missions where bulletproof enemies show up.
The ending and final boss are disappointing. I wasn't even aware when I was fighting the final boss, and when the credits rolled in, I was like "wait, THAT'S IT?". They could've gone with something bigger, like a huge overseas megacorporation suddenly trying to take over the whole island, instead you just get attacked by the cartel you stole the farms from.
There's not much worthwhile to do in the open-world, except for shakedowns. There are the gym and aerobics minigames, but there's no reason to do them at all. You can search for charging cables, but you only get an achievement for finding them all. I wish there was more to do. However the locations are very beautiful. The pixelart looks nearly perfect and the animations are fluid. It's also really cool that almost everything can be destroyed. You can drive through fences, burn down trees or mow tall grass with assault rifles (because who needs lawnmovers?). There is a time cycle (that is hardly noticeable, most likely to not obstruct vision), but no weather system, which would've been nice. The soundtrack, while not as large as RCR's, is really good; it straight up sounds like 80's music from a Genesis/SNES game.

Shakedown: Hawaii does improve on some things from RCR but it needs a better ending and extra side content (which will most likely receive sooner or later, judging by how much support RCR had). A weather system and a hard difficulty mode would be nice, too. It's a worthy purchase but if you didn't play RCR yet, I'd recommend playing that instead.


Deus Ex: Mankind Divided™

49.0 hours, 63 of 81 achievements
★★★★☆☆

I was very excited for this game when I finally got a PC strong enough to run it so I started it as soon as I was done with Yakuza. It's much better than Invisible War which I played back in May but it still has some flaws.

The game doesn't try to reinvent itself so it just takes the gameplay of Human Revolution and refines it a bit. They added a few new augs and items, as well as gave the hacking minigame a slight upgrade. There's still multiple ways to tackle problems, plenty of places to explore and things to discover and it's still just as fun, like it should've been.

As for the story, many say that it's unfinished and I don't agree, at least not completely. It doesn't end suddenly, but I did expect it to be longer and it does reveal something at the end that gives a lot of room for a sequel. There are also some returning characters from HR and the original Deus Ex, however I didn't like how Mankind Divided is written all around the choices you make in HR. The background stories scattered around dozens of e-books, pocket secretaries and e-mails are still just as good, though, and make all the exploring well worth it.

Normally, there are cities between missions which you can visit and roam around freely. Mankind Divided, however, has only Prague, to which you return repeatedly. While Prague is bigger than any city from past Deus Ex games and with each visit it does change and provide new side quests, it's almost completely open to you right from the start, so if you do everything you can on your first visit, you won't have much to do on the subsequent visits. It doesn't help that some parts of the game got cut out to sell as DLC instead (they're quite good, though).

As for the graphics, the game looks marvelous on very high settings. The locations are full of little details and Prague has some pretty sights. My only nitpick is that there are a couple objects that have low-res textures for some reason.

Many complain about the microtransactions in this game, but the main game already seemed like it was made without those microtransactions in mind. There is absolutely no reason to buy them. If you have the DLC, you can claim some extra items but they're one-time use only. Once you claim them, you can't redeem them again ever, even on an another playthrough which is BS. Breach mode, on the other hand, is a whole another story. You can tell from a mile away that it's like one of those freemium mobile games that push you to spend money on card packs. I gave up on it as soon as I realized that.

I liked Mankind Divided. It's a bit too short, and the story isn't on par with the earlier Deus Ex games, but it's still a fun game to play. Let's just hope that they won't try to force microtransactions into the next Deus Ex game again…


  • XIII - Classic

    7.1 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • The Walking Dead: A New Frontier

    7.6 hours playtime

    30 of 30 achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Spirits of Metropolis

    8.2 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Rhythm Heaven Megamix

    7.1 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★☆☆

  • Super Mario 3D Land

    10 hours playtime

    no achievements

    ★★★★★☆

Unfinished games:

  • The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition

    30.0 hours playtime

    30 of 52 achievements

  • BoxBoy!

    1.5 hours playtime

    no achievements

  • I received Witcher 3 from my BLAEO secret santa, Arbiter Libera so I started Witcher 2 to catch up with the story. It feels janky at few points, even with a combat rebalance mod installed, but it has such a great story, world and atmosphere. It’s even better in Polish for that authentic kurwa and zaraza experience.
  • Haven’t played BoxBoy! much but it seems like a nice and easy puzzle platformer.

Next up:

  • The Outer Worlds

    0 hours playtime

    0 of 48 achievements

  • Yakuza 3 Remastered

    0 hours playtime

    0 of 50 achievements

  • I won The Outer Worlds from a giveaway during a barter.vg event! From what I heard, it was made by the same studio that did Fallout: New Vegas. which I loved and acts as a spiritual successor to it. I’m excited to try it out!
  • I did not expect for the Yakuza Remastered Collection to release so early. Can’t wait to replay Yakuza 3-5 as soon as they come out!

Current progress

38.7% (229/592)
6.9% (41/592)
4.1% (24/592)
50.3% (298/592)

Progress 1 year ago:

31.80% (180/566)
7.24% (41/566)
4.77% (27/566)
56.18% (318/566)

Progress 2 years ago:

19.89% (108/543)
7.73% (42/543)
11.97% (65/543)
60.41% (328/543)

does not include games from the "won't play" list and non-Steam backlogs

Notes

I’ve beaten 49 games in 2020 and added 36 to the backlog. This is a lot less than in 2019 since I spent a hefty chunk of my time saving up for a new PC and playing on a 3DS instead, beating 16 games on it since I bought it in May. And I don’t think that the numbers will improve much this year, because I’m going to put more focus on larger, demanding AAA-type titles as now I have a PC that can handle them. I’ll still try to curb my purchases as much as possible, but I don’t know for how long will I be able to keep it up.

I would like to thank my BLAEO Secret Santa Arbiter Libera for gifting me The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition, those gifts are awesome :D

Have a great new year everyone and take care :)

almost 3 years ago 10 comments
Statistics
1204 games
30% never played
3% unfinished
7% beaten
21% completed
39% won't play
Lists