Smythe’s profile
January 2024
Happy New Year! Feels a little strange writing that now but this is my first post of the year here.
A decent start to the year, 5 assassinations. Aside from those assassinations, this month I’ve been playing Session, Disco Elysium, Eastward, and Basingstoke. I’m struggling with Basingstoke. I keep replaying the same level trying to make progress but I’m not getting very far! Session recently got achievements, which was a good excuse to go back and relearn the controls. The other two, I’m enjoying a lot but haven’t dedicated a lot of time to yet.
What news do I have…hmmm, not much. Work has quietened down a lot. There’ll be things to do for the next month or two but it won’t be crazy busy for a while (I hope!). I did about 25 hours of an online side job last week in addition to my regular work which drove me a bit crazy. An intense 5 days or so, but it’s done now and won’t come around again for a while.
Steam
Rollerdrome
Loved this one. A ‘sports’ setting, I guess, so not much of a story but there was enough to explain the situation. It looks good and plays well.
There’s a good difficult arc too. I’ve not mastered it enough to get the most difficult achievements, but getting through all the levels took time and it felt like I was improving. I came back to this after a long break and it took me an hour or so to get back into the rhythm of things and relearn the controls. A real ‘yesssss’ moment when I beat the final boss. Beaten, but I can definitely see myself coming back to this in the future (Once I either 1. beat the backlog or 2. Need a break from other games!). I’ll leave it installed with 71% of achievements for now. As it is, there are a lot of other games I want to play so onwards and upwards!Sludge Life
One of those games that I was half interested in based on positive reviews but never enough to buy it. It was recently given away for free (probably because the sequel was released) so I grabbed it.
Very strange but not unpleasant setting to the game. The good things - the music, the concept of graffiti tagging in the game, and the unusual NPCs you meet. The bad things - Not sure if it’s my setup but the screen movement was strange, creating almost a motion sickness feeling. It was better on the Steamdeck than a big screen but still noticeable and offputting. With the climbing mechanic, you can climb some surfaces but not others. The problem is there is no clear indication of what you can and can’t climb. Also, some kind of juvenile humour in there. I probably would’ve appreciated them in my early teens but not so much now. Overall, ok. It was short enough and I enjoyed it enough to complete it but I have no interest in getting the sequel.Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition
I played Metro 2033 back in 2019 and didn’t really enjoy it. The dark setting and slight horror-jump-scare vibe didn’t do it for me. Based on that, I avoided the newer Metro games and had no plan to play anymore. That is until I got my keys mixed up and activated this one by mistake.
Fast forward to… now and I finally decided to take the plunge (I added the game to my 8 years of BLAEO challenge to push myself to play it). The setting and storyline of this game were better for me. A lot of the game is above ground and you don’t have to deal with lights, flares, lighters, etc. as much to find your way around. I’m still not sold, but it was better than I expected. Beaten and 55% of achievements. I should probably try and get a few more. The DLCs are cheap at the moment and I’ve toyed with the idea of getting those to push the percentage up a little more. There will always be some difficulty-related ones that I won’t get but that might be a way to push my average completion a little higher. An added annoyance is that the Enhanced Edition was an addition rather than a replacement for the vanilla version of the game and achievements gained in one don’t pop in the other. So… I still have the standard version of the game sitting at 0 hours and 0%!Will You Snail
Why do I continue to buy games that I am not good at? A precision platformer. There is nothing precise about my gaming and speedrunning is not something I could do at my peak, let alone when I’m over 40! Thankfully there are difficulty settings and I could adjust them to get past the more difficult levels without too much stress.
Pretty simple game, fun, with lots of secrets and extra things to go for once you beat the main story. I won’t be going for those though (not just yet, anyway). Beaten for now at 60% of achievements.Unpacking
I’m torn with this. I enjoyed parts of it but other parts were a little frustrating and didn’t really fit into the ‘casual’ and ‘relaxing’ vibe that I expected.
Moving home is supposedly one of the more stressful things you can do in your life. I’ve done it a lot (8 times in my 18 years in Japan, I think!). I quite like it actually, maybe it’s partly because I haven’t hoarded a lot of things. It’s nice finding a new place, planning the layout, deciding where things will live, and changing things around. Kind of a new, exciting start each time. I got this game thinking it would be similar. It is, to some extent, but there need to be more features in my opinion. You open boxes and put items in your home. The home starts as one room and expands to be a bigger house as you progress through your life. There are a couple of problems. Firstly, it’s not always clear exactly what the things you are unpacking are. They can be quite small and there is no way of identifying them. The game consoles and kitchen appliances in particular threw me. It was also difficult to tell the difference between books, CDs, DVDs, and console games (I’m just guessing that all these were in the game!) but this didn’t matter. Most items can be put pretty much anywhere, so for a lot of items I could just unpack them and just throw them on a shelf. Others have very limited locations that they can be 'correctly' placed in. If you put some items in the ‘wrong’ place, they glow when you try to finish the level as a prompt for you to put them elsewhere. Being able to clearly identify items would help you to put them in the right place first time. It would be good to have some kind of mechanic to make you more conscious of where things are placed. I’m not sure how, perhaps a ‘practicality’ meter or ‘Feng Shui’ indication of some kind, or a score at the end of the level. I felt like in a lot of levels I would just throw things anywhere and then ‘correct’ the items that the game told me were in the wrong place, which is a lot different to real life.Backlog Additions
Three additions, not great but as I assassinated 5 games I’m still making progress! Nobody Saves the World, Dinkum, and ICEY.
December 2023
A pretty short post for the end of the year. I spent most of December playing Dave the Diver. At the end of the month, I finished that then noticed the current 8 years of BLAEO event and so chose 8 games from that period to work on. The games I chose should pop up in the next couple of posts and in the last few days I’ve started on Metro Exodus and Basingstoke.
I’m sure I’ve other snippets of news but my mind is blank right now and as it’s already January 1st, I want to get this post up! So, just a short update. Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year. Another year of assassinations is ahead. Hopefully, I can get my Steam average achievement to 50% this year.
Steam
Dave the Diver
Believe the hype, it's a great game! Mainly an adventure and management game. Explore the depths and catch fish before your air runs out. Capture different species of fish and other sealife, upgrade your equipment, then head back to the restaurant and make sushi.
Decent story, pretty relaxing, plenty to do, and generally an all-around fun game. My only minor complaint is some of the puzzles and mini-games weren't great, but these were a minor part of the game as a whole. Oh, and the free dlc that adds an extra element from Dredge wasn't great. If I knew what it added, I probably wouldn't have installed that. I preferred the vanilla game. The event that it triggers is only once a week or something like that, so not a big deal.Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
I bought this in 2016 and can't remember the last time I played it, but went back to it as part of the current Eight Years of BLAEO event. If you've played the first game, it's more of the same. If you haven't, a difficult top-down shooter. Very violent.
I think I stopped playing this because it's difficult (for me at least). It's still difficult, but I was able to finish the main story and pick up a fair number of achievements. You get a grade for each level and I think I may have got one B-. The majority were C or D grades, so I suck at it! There's no way I'll get all the achievements, so it's just into the beaten pile rather than completed.Backlog Additions
Just two additions this month, despite the sales - Bear and Breakfast which I’d be interested in since I played a demo in the Steam Nextfest, and Tunguska: The Visitation which I was on the shelf about but won in the Steamgifts Winter event.
Progress in 2023
I missed this summary last year, maybe I’ll go back and add the figures. Since I started using BLAEO I’ve made progress, but not so much in this last year so the figure below isn’t very interesting. A little too much buying and not enough playing! The figures for every year are in my profile section of the site.
Beginning of 2023 - 365 games
Beginning of 2024 - 407 games
September-November
A long period with no posts again for the usual reason - work being busy. I want to do a separate end-of-year post and should have more time to game in December, so hopefully I can post at the end of this month and break the recent trend of 2-3 month long intervals.
I had a bit of a spending spree recently. A new laptop (no gaming, just everyday stuff away from the office/game room), new TV, new monitor (30% off in Black Friday sales) and some clothes. I’m normally pretty restrained, but felt like splurging a bit!
Not many games were beaten or completed in these 3 months and I got a lot of new ones (-.-;). On the bright side, I enjoyed lots of the games I played. So, time well spent!
Onto this month’s assassinations:
Steam
Garden Story
Darksiders Genesis
Batman Arkham Knight
Doom & Destiny
Inbento
Dredge
Backlog Additions
Oh dear, lots of additions. I won Starfield in a competition. Most of the others were from trades but I bought a couple and added Starbound from an old bundle that I forgot about.
Bear and Breakfast, inbento, The Case of the Golden Idol, DREDGE, A Story Beside, DAVE THE DIVER, Will You Snail?, Unpacking, Starbound, Cult of the Lamb, Starfield, Journey to the Savage Planet
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Mail Mole
-
Children of Morta
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Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition
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Kaze and the Wild Masks
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RESTLESS SOUL
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Chicken Police
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Terror of Hemasaurus
June-August
My longest streak of not posting. I’ve pushed the boundaries of laziness even further. My previous two-month break has been extended to a three-month one. No single reason. A very busy period at work and an 18-day trip to the UK are probably the main reasons. A few other minor things, but I probably should’ve limited it to a two-month gap.
Work - Pretty stressful, to be honest. My sleep and sanity suffered a bit too, but nothing too serious. It’ll be quieter until about mid-September so I can relax a bit. From September things will get crazy again.
UK trip - Not really a holiday, as I was mainly visiting family and friends. There were a few more touristy things thrown in there as my gf came with me. We managed to time the trip as some rail strikes were happening which threw things a little. Thankfully a friend could drive us on the two days that trains were canceled, but that was one more thing to think about! I enjoyed meeting friends and eating a lot! It would be nice to have another trip to a beach resort or something but unlikely anytime soon.
I started writing this mid-August during a week’s holiday from work, which meant I had time to look back at the games and think a bit. I’m back at work as I finish writing it, but not too bad at the moment. Aside from the games listed below, I’ve been playing APICO (relaxing, fun, slow progress), Good Night, Knight (I’m stuck, need to go back to this), Roboquest (Nice for short bursts of gameplay, no achievements), Darksiders Genesis (it’s alright, actually added it to my account by mistake!), Rollerdrome (great fun!), and Garden Story (enjoying this one too and seems to be quite a lot to do).
Onto this month’s assassinations:
Steam
Mail Mole
Children of Morta
Sleeping Dogs
Kaze and the Wild Masks
RESTLESS SOUL
Chicken Police
Terror of Hemasaurus
Backlog Additions
The period June to Aug wasn’t too bad for my library with only a handful of additions. I’ve assassinated some of the additions already and am playing others:
Disco Elysium, Haiku, the Robot, Garden Story, Terror of Hemasaurus, Kaze and the Wild Masks, Rain World
April-May
Oops, a two-month period again. I wasn’t even sure which games I was playing in April when I started writing this post! I had to search back in my Steam playtime and work it out. Hopefully, I got them all. I’m not even sure why I didn’t post. I guess I didn’t have much to report on as I still don’t a month later.
So, other happenings. I turned 42 during this two-month period. I didn’t do anything special, a meal with my gf but nothing much else. I kept it on the down-low at work too, so only one person with a good memory remembered and gave me a present. Work has been up and down. Getting up before 6am every day to go to the office isn’t great, but I’m much more productive in the office, the work is better in person, and I’m much more sociable. There has been a lull at work this week, but I’m gonna be busy again from Monday. This busyness and just a general lack of attention for longer games means most of my recent gaming has been on the Steamdeck. Short bursts during my commute or before I go to bed.
Onto this month’s games:
Steam
Olija
Spiritfarer
Luna's Fishing Garden
Cozy Grove
Backlog Additions
The additions are easier to check than the games I played as I can check back in my Steam account activation history. The list of shameful additions are:
Chicken Police, Teslagrad Remastered (I haven’t finished the original and thought the remastered version would replace it, but alas it’s another entry in my library!), Rollerdome, Restless Soul, Aground, Apico, Metro Last Light, Good Night, Knight, Mail Mole
February-March
A two-month update. Not that I haven’t been playing, I just hadn’t really finished any games at the End of February. Actually, not much better now but I’ve never been more than one month late with an update and I’m not about to start now!
So, the games I’ve been playing but not finishing are:
Mudrunner - Finding this frustrating. Completely different from my expectations! Guess I’ll do the bare minimum I can to call it ‘beaten,’ or snap and uninstall!
Grounded - fun but big and needs a lot of time.
Deathloop - enjoying it a little more, but obviously not enough to actually finish it. Need to get back to it.
Spiritfarer - decent progress on this, but based on achievements I’m nowhere near the end.
Cozy Grove - takes about an hour a day to do the ‘tasks’, so no way to up the pace.
Although a lot of time has passed since my last post, I don’t have much to write. Guess I’m in a bit of a gaining lull at the moment. Playing, but not massive amounts of time, just an hour here and there. I used a lot of holidays at work in March and will be heading back into the office every day from next week, which will seriously reduce my gaming time, so I’m unlikely to make much progress in the coming month. I live further away from the office than pre-Covid days and have been working mainly online for about 3 years, so it’s gonna be a shock to the system.
Onto this month’s games:
Steam
A Short Hike
Battle Chef Brigade
Backlog Additions
More additions. A mixture of bought games, gifts, one freebie and one win. My bad start to the year continues as the number of games increases and my completed percentage drops:
Sludge Life, Roboquest, A Short Hike, Spiritfarer®: Farewell Edition, MudRunner, Luna’s Fishing Garden,
January
Another new year begins and the continued war on my backlog continues. After a brief period at 48% completion I dropped back to 47% during January as I started a few new games that have dragged my stats down. I’ve been using BLAEO since 2017 and while there is a clear improvement in the percentage of beaten and completed games over the years, recently I’ve been adding more games too and the number of unplayed/unfinished isn’t changing much (I update the stats in my BLAEO profile each month/year so it’s easy to see).
Today was a mixed month. Time off work and access to the Deck increased my playtime a bit, so I was able to beat/complete quite a few games, but I also added to my library. The most surprising of these additions came from BLAEO itself! I voted in the Game Awards 2022 on the site as I do every year and then kind of forgot about it until I was informed that I won a game from the winners list. So, thank you again Skanda. I opted for Hardspace Shipbuilder, a game that I’ve been interested in for a while but never took the plunge and bought.
Work is about to get busy. There’s be at least 2 weeks with lots of work and probably quite a lot of unpaid overtime (working from home while there’s construction going on at the office and overtime won’t be logged!). Hopefully, I can take a few breaks during the day to balance things a little, but I imagine my gaming time will drop a little. My side jobs are busy at the moment too - Good for my wallet but not for gaming.
Onto this month’s games:
Steam
Super Blood Hockey
The Last Campfire
Witcheye
Wildfire
Olliollie World
Backlog Additions
A perfect storm of sales, gifts, wins, and trades means I added nine games to my account!Two of these are in my list of assassinations this month, but still a bad start to the year.
The games are - Hardspace: Shipbreaker, Rebel Cops, Imposter Factory, BattleChef Brigade, Witcheye, OlliOlli World, Grounded, Zero Sievert, and Travellers Rest.
December
Finished off the main story of Cyberpunk 2077 this month, which took me a while. I spent the remaining time beating the other two games below and playing Super Blood Hockey. I’ve almost got all the achievements in that game, but a few more to go. Hopefully, it’ll be part of next month’s report. A decent month of assassinations but no completed games this time.
I received my Steam Deck this month. Japan was way behind Europe and the USA with the release, but there are still a few countries waiting, I think. Australia for one, maybe a few other Asian countries. Anyway, good so far. I’m trying not to allow it to lead me into gaming in every free minute! So far, I occasionally play on my commute (but still try to use most days for studying) and will sit in the living room playing a bit while my partner watches TV. Still not very social, but I chat between games and she’s doing her own thing anyway. It’s just nice not to be locked away in another room all the time.
I’ve done my usual statistics update in the profile section of this site. I bought a lot more games than I have in previous years, so my progress as a whole with my library on BLAEO doesn’t look great. The fact that I added 55 games to my account and my stats look pretty similar to last year is good though, I think. Also, I’ve resisted the urge to just play new games and have cleared some older titles, and my overall completion percentage on Steam is up to 48%. Hopefully next year I can clear 50%!
Anyway, onto this month’s games:
Steam
Cyberpunk 2077
Eldest Souls
Terminator Resistance
Backlog Additions
I think the only game I picked up this month was Sleeping Dogs. An old game that I had a feeling I have a key for somewhere but not sure where. I’ll probably find it now I’ve bought it! The Steam Sale is still going on and other are a few games I have my eye on, so maybe I’ll cave and get a couple in January. For now, though, limited additions, which helps my stats!
November
I spent quite a lot of time playing Cyberpunk 2077 this month. Enjoying that so I’ve been doing mainly side missions and taking my time. Other than that, I cleared 4 games from my assassin’s hit list! I really enjoyed all the games too, so a nice month of gaming overall.
Had my 5th Covid vaccine this month. The usual day or two of headaches and achy limbs after but nothing too bad. I’ve felt a bit coldy aside from that recently, so not much exercise. Instead, I’ve been watching the World Cup and drinking beer! Getting lazy so I’ll have to get back in the gym soon and build my good habits again.
Anyway, onto the games:
Steam
TOEM
Sheepo
Tinykin
UNSIGHTED
Backlog Additions
I won Eldest Souls on Steamgifts and picked up Cozy Grove at the end of the month, so not the worst of months. I resisted the sales and so overall this month my backlog is -2.
October
A more successful month, 5 games assassinated and 2 of them completed! Whoop!
A few days before the end of the month as I’ve just finished Narita Boy and I don’t want to forget to upload this. I’ve been pretty slack in recent months.
Aside from gaming, not much going on. Kind of surviving rather than living life to the fullest. Just going through the motions at work, gaming and doing stuff locally on my days off. I’m looking into a trip back to the UK now that Corona restrictions are pretty much lifted in Japan (pretty slow compared to other countries) but the flight prices are putting me off a bit. It’ll probably be next Summer.
Steam
Buddy Simulator 1984
Nuclear Blaze
Narita Boy
Mayhem in Single Valley
Celeste
Backlog Additions
I finally took control of the buying and just got one game this month - Dying Light Enhanced Edition. Pretty difficult to get a good deal on a version of this that runs in Japan, but took the plunge. I’m sure it will sit unplayed for a few months and will be free somewhere before I get to it!
415 | games |
9% | never played |
27% | unfinished |
45% | beaten |
17% | completed |
1% | won't play |