BLAEO — Backlog Assassins Extraordinaire

Smythe’s profile

Smythe

Strategy

beaten

completed

won't play

Statistics

Steam Stats

Beginning of 2017 - 282 games, 1642 achievements, 27% average game completion rate

Beginning of 2018 - 251 games, 2423 achievements, 34% average game completion rate

Beginning of 2019 - 241 games, 2690 achievements, 33% average game completion rate

Beginning of 2020 - 265 games, 3191 achievements, 35% average game completion rate

Beginning of 2021 - 277 games, 4459 achievements, 40% average game completion rate

Beginning of 2022 - 309 games, 5291 achievements, 43% average game completion rate

Beginning of 2023 - 364 games, 6562 achievements, 48% average game completion rate

BLAEO Stats

Beginning of 2017 - 276 games

13% won't play

39% never played

39% unfinished

6% beaten

3% completed

Beginning of 2018 - 249 games

7% won't play

21% never played

52% unfinished

14% beaten

6% completed

Beginning of 2019 - 237 games

4% won't play

16% never played

57% unfinished

16% beaten

7% completed

Beginning of 2020 - 261 games

3% won't play

14% never played

51% unfinished

23% beaten

9% completed

Beginning of 2021 - 276 games

3% won't play

5% never played

36% unfinished

43% beaten

12% completed

Beginning of 2022 - 310 games

2% won't play

8% never played

30% unfinished

47% beaten

13% completed

Beginning of 2023 - 365 games

2% won't play

9% never played

28% unfinished

46% beaten

15% completed

Super Blood Hockey

24 hours playtime

33 of 33 achievements
The Last Campfire

7 hours playtime

22 of 22 achievements
Witcheye

5 hours playtime

13 of 25 achievements
Wildfire

20 hours playtime

40 of 60 achievements
OlliOlli World

22 hours playtime

31 of 54 achievements

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

Click to read

A rare sports game in my library. I picked this up in 2020 on a whim and enjoyed it, but never really stuck with it. I got a Steam Deck in December and this was one of the games I thought would be good on the move. I’m resisting using it in all my free time, but it’s nice to occasionally play on a train or in a different room in my apartment (I can pretend to be more sociable!).

I played on Easy mode (no difficulty-related achievements and I’m basically not a skilled gamer!). Once I worked out a few strategies to score, I could win a fair number of games and with a bit more practice I was winning most of them. It looks like a simple game, but there are quite a few things to consider - player stats, type of player, health, training, drug use, etc.

For achievements most of my time was in career mode, I guess. Then the tournament mode, which I needed to win with every team. The final two achievements that took me a while were 100 wins (just amassing them rather than difficulty) and having 3 fatalities in the same game - this required brain-damaged players, a certain play style, and me starving them a bit to ensure some serious injuries!

I’m quite surprised that in total I only played about 5 hours, but as most of the matches were pretty short I guess it makes sense. 100% of achievements and into the Completed category.

The Last Campfire

Click to read

Fairly recent acquisition and another game that I thought would be good on the Deck. Better graphics than the pixelated Super Blood Hockey, so the Deck’s fans were whirring away a few times but on the whole, it was pretty quiet and it ran very well.

The game looks really nice. Kind of cute graphics. The game itself is pretty simple. Wander around finding puzzles, solve the puzzles, and go to a new area. There were a handful of puzzles that caused me some problems. Some trial and error and a few times I just stopped and stared a bit before the eureka moment hit!

Witcheye

Click to read

Had this on my wishlist and received it as a gift just after Christmas. Fun little game. Kind of a platformer but you’re a floating eye, so there are no real platforms or jumps. Hmm…. adventure then, that works.

The control scheme takes a bit of getting used to. You push a direction and the eye continues on that path until you press a button to stop it or push in another direction. Simple, but pretty different from other games. I kept forgetting that there was a stop button!

Reading through the reviews, I saw claims that you should go straight to ‘hard’ as easy was too…easy. I guess I’m worse at gaming than I thought! A lot of levels are pretty easy once you know the enemy’s patterns. I guess I got through about half of them on the first try but when I met a tricker level or boss, there was quite a bit of repetition. I was going for all collectibles, which meant I had to search a bit more (and got killed more!) and it took me over 5 hours to beat the game on ‘easy’. I should probably try it on hard, but as there’s a ‘severe’ mode, boss rush, and speedrun modes, there’s no way I’m going to 100% this one. So, a respectable 52% and into the beaten category for now.

Wildfire

Click to read

Another game I played on the Steam Deck. A pixel platformer stealth game. Picked this up based on the look of it and positive reviews really. I didn’t know much about it.

With most stealth games, I take the least stealthy option. So, basically, I ignore the stealth part whenever possible just because I find it easier and more fun. I played this game in a similar way. The nice thing about it was stealth was not a requirement to beat any of the levels, it was more of an added achievement to gain skills or level up. Each level has a main objective, an optional objective, stealth, and a speedrun goal.

While I got a few of the stealth and speedrun goals in the early, easier, levels I won’t be able to get the later ones. There are co-op achievements too, so no chance of me getting 100%. The main story has been completed, the credit screen has been viewed and I am categorizing this as beaten with 66% of achievements.

Olliollie World

Click to read

I have the original OlliOlli game but was never very good at it and didn’t get very far. I don’t remember if it has the same control scheme, if it does I should probably go back and try and play a little more.

This was much more fun than the original. It’s a completely different style, with prettier graphics, but it felt less infuriating. The gradual introduction of different controls and level elements as you progress worked well for me and kept me interested. There are a crazy amount of achievements. I’m sitting at 57% at the moment. While some of the remaining achievements will be difficult….very difficult…or even impossible for me to get, there are some that just need time to put in more hours and they’ll come with normal play.

I really liked the visuals, the music was pretty good and while it gets tougher as you progress through the levels, it never felt like I needed the reflexes of a teenager to beat them. Just a little practice and remembering where hazards are. The challenges and the online, daily ‘league’ competition mean there’s a lot of playtime still left here.

I’ll probably keep this installed for a while and dip into it every now and then. It’s good for a quick game or two and I’m not sick of it yet. It won’t be one of my main focuses though and as I’ve completed the main game, I’ll classify this as beaten and just chip away at a few other achievements for a while, I think.

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.

Cyberpunk 2077

97 hours playtime

34 of 44 achievements
Eldest Souls

12 hours playtime

27 of 50 achievements
Terminator: Resistance

14 hours playtime

26 of 36 achievements

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

Click to read

I got this way after release, so no major issues with bugs or stability. I liked it a lot actually. It reminded me of Fallout NV/3, I guess an updated version with a slightly different setting. As with a lot of games, I probably binged this a bit too much and got a little sick of it toward the end. I explored the map and did what I thought were all the side missions before getting very far in the main storyline (missed one NCPD mission in one area it seems, but nothing was left on the map - a bug perhaps).

Looked great, I liked the main storyline and the weapons were good too - a nice selection but not excessive like in Borderlands where I'm constantly sorting my inventory trying to decide which are the best guns to keep. I haven't got one of the endings yet, there are a few other random achievements, and that bugged mission one. This is a game I can see myself coming back to though. Fallout NV was a rare game where I came back and played through it again years after the first time. Maybe I'll get the remaining achievements someday, but for now, 99 hours of play and 77% will do.

Eldest Souls

Click to read

An SG win. This was in a recent bundle and I was half interested in it, but not enough in this or the other games to justify getting the bundle itself. It was good, difficult but good. Basically, lots of boss fights. The skill tree was a little confusing. I'm not sure if I wasn't paying attention at some point, but I wasn't aware that there were more than 2 special attacks until almost the final boss. I was trying all these different builds and wondering what the effects were for ages! Anyway, just me being a bit slow, I guess. The enemies were tough, but I felt like I was getting a little closer each time I played so it never felt impossible. The one that caused me the most trouble was probably the Deer God fight, but that just made winning all the more sweet when I finally got past him! Lots of achievements left, but I'm not good enough at the game to get those - highest difficulty and beating bosses while getting 0 damage, haha, no chance!

Terminator Resistance

Click to read

I've mixed feelings about this one. For a film tie-in, it's pretty good. The gameplay was pretty good, great setting, and the terminators themselves looked pretty good (for this game, that is). Weapons were okay, and the upgrade system was pretty novel and worked well. On the other hand, it was pretty short, the human characters/animation was bad, and the voice acting was bad too. It just felt like it was a bit outdated, to be honest. This was released in 2019, but the graphics look like they were from a game maybe 8-10 years earlier. So, average, I guess. Decent gameplay and a nice story but should have looked a lot better and been a bit longer. The achievements include the DLC, so no way for me to get 100%. I think I missed 1, maybe 2 achievements from the base game but as I can't get 100 I'll leave it as it is and mark it as 'Beaten'.

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!

TOEM

7 hours playtime

48 of 48 achievements
Sheepo

7 hours playtime

12 of 18 achievements
Tinykin

12 hours playtime

43 of 43 achievements
UNSIGHTED

35 hours playtime

26 of 42 achievements

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

Click to read

Casual, relaxing game in which you wander around and take photos. I played Alba not long ago, which is similar, but there seemed to be a bit more to this one. Still easy to complete, but slightly more thinking is involved! Cute, wholesome fun. Recommended.

Sheepo

Click to read

Metroidvania platform game. I'm not sure if the main character is a sheep but they only have two limbs, which was a little strange. Another very fun game. Just the right level of difficulty to feel like a challenge but not so hard that I wanted to give up. I bought this on the strength of reviews more than anything else, so a pleasant surprise. Beat the main story and picked up quite a few achievements on the way, there are quite a few left but not ones that I can/am motivated to get – speedrunning and difficulty based.

Tinykin

Click to read

I was pretty excited to pick this up. Had my eye on it ever since I played a demo during a Steam event.

So, did it live up to my expectations? Well...yes.... lots of fun, looked great and played well. It's like a game version of Honey I shrunk the Kids (Although Grounded might be more like that movie – another game I've been after!). The only issue I had with it was because I was going for 100% in the game, so not an issue if you don't care about that. Basically, you have to collect things in the game and one achievement is getting them all. However, there's no map indicating where they are and they are often quite well hidden in massive areas. So, in most levels, I found that I had done everything but still had to spend a looong time painstakingly sweeping the whole level looking for missing items. I'd guess that about 25% of my game time was doing that. Hopefully, they'll address that, but otherwise a great game and highly recommended.

UNSIGHTED

Click to read

A nice surprise here. I was half interested in this game. Had seen generally positive reviews but there were a few that put me off, as well as the artwork of the stills and cutscenes I could see on the store page. Glad I took the plunge as this is a great game and pretty challenging too.

Adventure, RPG...hmm.. Metroidvania game, I guess. I'm never good at defining games or deciding tags. There are two ways to play this. As it was originally meant to be, with a kind of ticking clock through the game which will run out for different characters unless you give them more time (or beat the game quickly, I guess), or a more explorative version with no clock. I, of course, went for the second. That gives you two run-throughs if you want, then there are speed runs and little hacks to skip sections. Basically, a lot there if you play through once and even more if you want. Tight controls, fairly challenging bosses, and lots of fun. Try it!

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.

Buddy Simulator 1984

7 hours playtime

22 of 30 achievements
Nuclear Blaze

4 hours playtime

20 of 20 achievements
Narita Boy

11 hours playtime

34 of 34 achievements
Mayhem in Single Valley

7 hours playtime

34 of 40 achievements
Celeste

70 hours playtime

28 of 32 achievements

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

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Kind of an Indie RPG, I guess. It reminded me of a mix of games like Pony Island, Oneshot, and Yuppie Psycho.

Not a typical game and a little disturbing (at one point near the end at least). Pretty fun overall and definitely interesting. If you liked any of the games I listed above, I'd recommend it. Can't say too much as I think it will spoil the game if you know too much. It starts as a kind of text adventure and evolves into a RPG with turn based combat (kind of). Requires multiple playthroughs to get 100% so it's staying at a respectable 73% for now and into the beaten pile.

Nuclear Blaze

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Apparently this is a 'one man project' from a guy who was a game designer on Dead Cells. There's a kind of secret area that's Dead Cells-like actually.

Fun little platformer, not too difficult and quite short overall but lost of fun. Put out fires to clear rooms and advance through the game. If you're too slow, fires will start up again in areas you've already cleared, which was a nice gameplay element. Recommended, if you can find it one sale. A rare 'completed game'.

Narita Boy

Click to read

This was in the September 2021 Humble Choice (I think), so you might have this in your backlog somewhere! 80's style, retro platformer. Strange and fun.

I'll start out by saying, I didn't really follow the back story in this game (the 'lore', if you like). Japanese-American, guru, game developer, Tron type thing. Maybe I just don't pay attention enough!

Even without understand that part, I could appreciate the overall feel of the game. Starting out, I wasn't too impressed, to be honest. A little too pixelated and I wasn't entirely convinced by the feel of the game, or the movement of the main charter or something, at the start. I got more into it as the character learned more moves and combat started. Also, the music! Great stuff. Kind of in the background, so I wasn't always paying a lot of attention, but it still made an impression. When I finally beat the game, it kind of clicked that the music was a big part of the game. The final song was great too. Here's a link to the soundtrack on YT if you want a listen: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZYVH5HQi0g) Completed this one. A little challenging at times, but I always felt I was getting a little closer to beating the more difficult bosses, which helped me stay motivated.

Mayhem in Single Valley

Click to read

Not sure how to describe this one. I guess it's a roleplay-adventure game. Looks quite simple (almost like a flash game) but it's pretty long and fleshed out.

Lots of missable achievements in this one. I didn't really know what I was doing at the start of this game tbh, probably should have read some guides or something. I collected all these different items without knowing what they were for, then just used them randomly. That meant I missed quite a few simple achievements, and I don't have any save points around those sections of the game. I don't think I would have been able to get 100% though, as there is a LOT to collect and I'm sure I'd end up missing a few things. The main part of the gameplay isn't too hard and it's a pretty fun game. This was in a couple of bundles, worth a look if you can get it cheap but I wouldn't recommend paying full price. Beaten.

Celeste

Click to read

Pretty famous, so I'm sure you've heard of this one. Released back in 2018. Tough platformer, well tough for most people and nigh on impossible for me!

There was something in this game that made me keep coming back for more punishment. I'm not sure what exactly. I sucked at this. I mean, the average time to beat the main story on HLTB is 8.5 hours and 36.5 hours for completionists. I guess I was between those two levels of completition and it took me 70 hours!

I'm kind of over difficult platformers after this, to be honest. I still have a few in my backlog but I'll probably steer clear of getting new ones in the future even if they're very highly rated. It is a good game, but there were parts of it I found a bit annoying (aside from the difficulty!). It was a bit too new-age, touchy feely for my liking – that old chestnut of 'finding yourself' on a voyage of self-discovery. Also the strawberry thing was a bit random. But anyway, this game has a pretty big following and is highly regarded, so I'll leave it at that. Play it if you like platformers, laugh at how long I spent trying to beat it over a period of months if you're good at platformers! Beaten.

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!

art of rally

19 hours playtime

42 of 43 achievements
Skullgirls 2nd Encore

29 hours playtime

25 of 45 achievements
Webbed

11 hours playtime

16 of 19 achievements
My Time At Portia

130 hours playtime

57 of 91 achievements

August - September

No monthly post again and I’m almost at the end of a couple of games but thought I’d best not delay for another month, so here’s a brief update.

Steam

Art of Rally

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I played this briefly on Gamepass and liked it, so stopped playing and decided to wait until I got it on Steam.

Difficult handling throughout which gets some used to, but makes the game more satisfying when you do improve. I'm still far from 'good' at this, but I have all the achievements aside from one – doing 1,000 race stages. Basically just a grind. I may get it at some point but no time soon, so just beaten for now!

Skullgirls 2nd Encore

Click to read

I bought this in 2014 (When it was just 'Skullgirls') and had about 8 hours of playtime but 0 achievements. I'm not good at fighting games and I don't remember why exactly I picked this up!

Anyway, I was prompted to try it again as a Discord channel I use had a challenge related to one of the achievements. I ended up beating the game with all the available fighters, so despite the poor achievement percentage, I'm calling this beaten.

Webbed

Click to read

I'd had my eye on this for a while and picked it up in a trade. I don't think it's particularly well known, but has great Steam reviews and looked fun.

After trying it, I can confirm it is fun! Lots of fun. Not the most challenging game or the longest, but it plays well and is just a bit different from most games. You can use webs to move around, but it's building webs that I thought was the best part. You can leave web ropes to travel on later, mark off areas you've visited, and leave traps for flies. I need another playthrough for one of the remaining achievements, so just beaten for now while I play other games.

My Time at Portia

Click to read

Got this for free from a friend and ended up spending most of the last two months playing it. Not without its faults but very more-ish, kind of like a rough round-the-edges Stardew Valley.

Let's start with the title, why is it 'at' Portia and not 'in' Portia? Portia is the name of the town you live in....live IN ....not the biggest issue, but it does annoy me! So, the good parts. There is a lot to do. I'm not sure what the fastest time you could complete the main storyline is, but I don't think it would be under 50 hours. Then there are a lot of side stories and quests. If you're an achievement hunter, you can only get some of them by developing long relationships with people or marrying them, and you can't be married to two people simultaneously so each of those relationships takes time to build up. I wasn't keen on the graphics tbh. It looks a bit like a bad metaverse, 2nd life type chat room. That was a big thing for me and is the main reason I would probably never have bought it myself. It's easy to spend time in the game though, there's always something you need to be making, fetching, or growing. Just like Stardew, you can start a game and easily spend hours engrossed in it. There are lots of achievements remaining, but I played far too much in 2 months and have had enough! Beaten for now, probably gonna stay just beaten if I'm honest.

Backlog Additions

Bad month again, although I have beaten two of these - My Time At Portia, Sheepo, Webbed, The Last Campfire, TOEM, My Time at Sandrock, Terminator: Resistance, Tinykin, The Tenants, Scrap Mechanic.

Golf Peaks

3 hours playtime

12 of 12 achievements
The Ramp

51 minutes playtime

12 of 12 achievements
Kentucky Route Zero

9 hours playtime

24 of 24 achievements
Sniper Elite 4

36 hours playtime

47 of 85 achievements
The Darkside Detective

5 hours playtime

30 of 30 achievements
Inspector Waffles

3 hours playtime

15 of 15 achievements

June-July

A bit disorganized in June and I didn’t make much progress in many games, so I went for the two-month report. It does bring the problem of not remembering what I played, but I think I got everything!

I had a weekend away to another area of Japan and stayed near the beach. Still difficult to travel internationally and the prices are crazy, so this was the best I could do for now!

Not much other news. bought a few things for my apartment and did quite a lot of extra work (which helps pay for those things!). My real job has been quiet for a week or so. There will be a very busy period late in August, but for now, I’m enjoying being at a bit of a loose end. That’s given me a bit more time to play games, but this month was not a good one for cutting down the backlog as I bought far more than I beat!

Steam

Golf Peaks

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Not the kind of game I'd normally go for just reading the description on the Steam store and the preview videos, but I read a lot of good things about this.

Puzzle golf game. You are given a set number of 'cards' that hit the ball in different ways, normally different distances or chipping the ball. Then you need to negotiate the course and put the ball. Simple idea. As with all puzzle games, I did what I could and checked guides when I was stuck, so it's a semi-legitimate completed game.

The Ramp

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There's a warning on the store page of this game not to expect too much and that it's not really a 'game' as such and more a 'digital toy'. It's nice that the creator added the warning to prevent people expecting too much.

I think it's fair to call it a game, just a short and simple one. I picked it up during the Steam sale and think the reduced price was fair for what I got. It took me just under an hour to 'complete' the game and get all the achievements. It does feel more like a way to just zone out a bit and not really chase achievements, so in that way maybe a 'digital toy' is a better description. You have the rhythm-type control of pressing and releasing a button at the right point to build up speed and the pretty standard combination of directions and buttons for grabs and tricks. Nice to pass a little time and if you don't feel like getting stuck into another game, it's something nice to dip into every now and then. Good music too

Kentucky Route Zero

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I remember seeing the first 'episode' of this being released years ago. It looked interesting, but I wasn't really convinced. I'm kind of glad I didn't dive in early as it took a very long time for all the parts to come out. I think about 7 years on Steam (9 years of production including the Kickstarter days).

So, does it feel like a game that took 9 years to develop? In many ways, yes. There are a lot of great things in the game and it's very polished, it's just not really my thing. I don't spend a lot of time writing my comments (I don't think I can really call them 'reviews'!) on BLAEO, but I did think about this one a bit because it's not really like many other games I've played. I've settled on drawing a parallel - KRZ is, for me, like a Wes Anderson movie. It's artistic, stylish, kind of hipster-ish, there's good music, and it's been carefully and thoughtfully put together to create a very polished final product. There are parts where I think, "that's clever" but at the end of the experience I didn't really enjoy it and it all feels a bit pretentious. It could be that I just don't get it, but I didn't really understand what the 'deeper meaning' of the game was and after looking up ideas online, it feels like a bit of a stretch. So, anyway. It looks great (see below for some poorly formatted screenshots) and the scenes and angles are directed like a movie, but aside from the visuals, I didn't enjoy it. Completed.

Sniper Elite 4

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Played this a few years back on a friend's system, Playstation maybe? And quite enjoyed it. I have the first in the series but haven't bought anything since.

I'm sure everyone is pretty familiar with this series. I see it as kind of a mix between Hitman and Just cause myself. Option for stealth but not as important as Hitman, with a slightly more open world and collectibles like Just Cause. I beat the main game and DLC missions, got all the secondary objectives, and the optional objectives in the main missions. Also picked up quite a few extra achievements as I went, so sitting at a respectable 55%. It's unlikely I'll every get 100%, as there are ones for the highest level of difficulty and no saves, which I don't have the skill/patience for! I might come back and pick up a few more in the future though, collectibles and things. Beaten.

Darkside Detective

Click to read

A Point and Click Adventure game, which I normally steer clear of but this one had overwhelmingly positive reviews and I could pick it up in a trade.

Better dialogue than a lot of similar games, and there were a few funny bits in there. The puzzles weren't too obscure either. I dipped into guides when I was a bit lost and to clear up achievements at the end, so at times I was treating this a bit like a visual novel rather than a game. Probably won't get the sequel, but not gonna count it out. Fun game, and it goes into the completed pile.

Inspector Waffles

Click to read

Pretty similar description to the game above! Another Point and Click Adventure game. I got this one from the Guardian Bundle at Fanatical.

Pixel graphics for this one, very blocky, but the cut scenes were all cartoon style and much more detailed. A bit strange that there was so much of a contrast between them really. The story in this one was more complex than Darkside detective, there were also some slightly more obscure solutions to puzzles. I had a similar tactic with this game in that I dipped into guides when I was stuck rather than thinking too hard! I did have to load from a save point and replay quite a big section as I missed a collectible card needed for a secret ending and achievements. Pretty good overall, and good dialogue again, but I preferred Darkside Detective. Completed.

Backlog Additions

Where to start. I’ve had a decent amount of money sitting in my Steam account for about 3 years that hasn’t really decreased much, so I splurged all that on a few games. Also did some trades… so I bought a silly number of games, 15 in total!
Here they are: Art of Rally, Unsighted, Cavity Busters, Courier of the Crypts, DYSMANTLE, DEATHLOOP, ATOM RPG Trudograd, Olija, Golf Peaks, Necesse, Cyberpunk 2077, Sniper Elite 4 Deluxe Edition, Black Mesa, Wildfire, The Ramp.

Alba: A Wildlife Adventure

3 hours playtime

9 of 9 achievements
ISLANDERS

11 hours playtime

26 of 26 achievements
Suzerain

15 hours playtime

31 of 86 achievements
Death's Door

18 hours playtime

17 of 24 achievements

May

I usually keep a note of games I’ve played and bought during to help me write this, but was a bit disorganized this month. I think I managed to work out the games I beat/completed though. A few days late with this update too as I was close to beating Death’s Door.

Aside from gaming, what did I do? Hmm….I started Japanese lessons again, online this time. I’ve dipped into them over the years I’ve lived in Tokyo but not been very consistent. My Japanese is ok but not as good as it should be for the amount of time I’ve been here, so this is another attempt to improve a little!

I also signed myself up for some additional health insurance. Coming from the UK, paying for healthcare is always a bit strange (basically it’s free there and paid for by your taxes. While there may be a waiting list for some things, overall it’s pretty amazing). Here I’m in a policy with work where I only have to pay about 30% of treatment costs, which is fine for most things, but if there’s ever something big (touch wood it won’t happen!) then it can get very expensive. As I’m getting on a bit, I thought I should probably be sensible and sort that out. Anyway, that was pretty difficult in Japanese and kind of pushed me back into the lessons a bit too.

The final bit of news, I joined a kickboxing gym again. I’ve been doing it on and off for about 18 years. Most recently, I spent about 2 years just practicing myself with a sandbag in a regular gym. I moved to a different area of Tokyo earlier this year though and Couldn’t get there very easily, so after about 6 months off I’ve joined a place with instructors again. I’m not competing anymore (had an eye operation a few years back, may have partly been down to getting punched for years but can’t say for sure) but I missed it enough to search out a gym and am trying to go at least once a week. Aside from that, busy at work but that’s not new, so onto the games!

Steam

Alba: a wildlife adventure

Click to read

Not the kind of game I'd normally go for just reading the description on the Steam store and the preview videos, but I read a lot of good things about this.

The story did feel a little..how can I put this, cute and kid-friendly... kind of like it was trying too hard to teach you about the environment. Aside from that, I really liked it. Taking photos was a fun change to catching or shooting things and the story was kind of fun. Pretty relaxed game and something that most ages could enjoy. Pretty short game and easy to get all achievements, so this one goes into the completed pile.

Islanders

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City building, but without the management aspects, hours of gameplay or stress! Basically removing all the things I can't deal with very well in regular management games.

I guess this was more like a puzzle game. Find the best position for different parts of the city based on how close you put them in relation to other elements. It felt like there was a little bit of luck involved in getting a good island layout, but not too bad. Nice relaxing game to dip into and I managed to 100% it, so another 'completed' game!

Suzerain

Click to read

I should really play this more, but getting the achievements seems to require a lot of playthroughs and the game doesn't really change much. There's quite a lot of reading on your first couple of playthroughs, but in most subsequent games it feels like you're just clicking through to get to certain points where you can make a particular choice that will affect the story.

I guess it's a kind of political choose your own adventure kind of game. Whenever you play the game there's an 'ending' to the story, so it's difficult to know when you have 'beaten' it. I got 3-4 endings, but every time I played after that I seemed to get the same ones even though I made different choices. There are a lot more achievements available, but I'm not keen on going through the same story again and again to get them. There are guides that give you general advice on what kind of options to choose for specific endings, but I didn't find any specific playthroughs. Probably because there are so many choices in the game. Anyway, kind of fun but it gets old after a couple of runs as it's the same basic story each time. So, a pretty low 36% and into the beaten pile for this one.

Death's Door

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I'd been after this for a while but it hadn't turned up in any bundles or possible trades. I finally just bought it when there was a decent sale this month. Glad I did. It's a great game!

The art, music, gameplay all worked well to create a really nice game overall. It was just about the right difficulty for me too. Some parts were tough, but I felt like I was making just enough progress each time to come back again and again until I got past that particular section. I picked up quite a few achievements, but there are at least 2 that require me to do another run through. No matter how much I like a game, that's pretty unlikely. So, 'beaten' for now. There's a chance I might come back to it but so long as I have a backlog it's pretty unlikely.

Backlog Additions

After a bad couple of months where I added a lot of games to my library, I was more restrained in May. I only picked up two games, Death’s Door which I’ve already beaten, and Outer Wilds.

PGA TOUR 2K21

24 hours playtime

25 of 29 achievements
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion

4 hours playtime

37 of 37 achievements
Assemble with Care

80 minutes playtime

14 of 14 achievements
The Count Lucanor

6 hours playtime

32 of 32 achievements
ISLANDERS

11 hours playtime

26 of 26 achievements

April

Lots of short games this month, so I could 100% some of them and increase the number of games I’ve completed. Whoop!

Hard to remember what happened this month. I continued to buy small things for my apartment (after moving in January), work has been steady (lots of overdue deadlines but at least there have been no new projects suddenly appearing!), I had my third Covid vaccine, and I turned 41. Aside from that, just the usual gaming, going to the gym, trying new restaurants. Oh, I’m trying to get back into studying again. I go through stages of working on my Japanese and times when I don’t really bother, so we”ll see how long it lasts this time!

Steam

PGA TOUR 2K21

Click to read

I didn't want this enough to get the Humble Monthly it was in, but was intersted enough to enter giveaways on SG. My thinking being that If I won it would be nice to try, if not I wouldn't be too bothered! There were a lot of people giving this away, so after a month or two of entries I managed to win.

I briefly tried the very realistic/difficult settings but soon reverted to normal/easy. It was nice having the game set up so that it was more relaxing than a real challenge or source of frustration. I often mention games that are easy to drop into for an hour or two and this was another. No real surprises, I mean it's a golf game so you know what you're getting! The commentary was a little repetitive, but not enough for me to search the settings to see if I could switch it off.

I got most of the achievements. The remaining ones involved multiplayer games (always dead when I tried), legend difficulty, and the only one that I had a go at but never managed, holing the ball from a bunker. Still, 86% and 24 hours of play for a game I wasn't sure about is pretty good! Into the 'beaten pile it goes'

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion

Click to read

There seemed to be quite a bit of hype around this game, well, I heard about it quite a bit. People I knew seemed to be playing it and it came up in a few feeds. Enough to get me interested and it looked kind of fun. I didn't watch any videos as it looked like the kind of game that had a story you could spoil by finding out too much.

When I bought and tried it I was a little disappointed to be honest. There wasn't much to the story and the gameplay was pretty simple. The best part, for me at least, was the 'Limitless Line' section after you finish the main story. I think it might have been a free DLC added to the game after it was released. Anyway, after playing for a while, I decided to dip into a guide to ensure I got all the achievements. Overall, not a bad game, but not one I'd recommend. Completed.

Assemble with Care

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Not sure where my interest in this game came from. I guess it looked a bit different and seemed pretty relaxing. Basically you dismantle things, fix them then put them back together. It was pretty relaxing and although there were a few slightly trickier parts, it's a pretty simple game overall. I wasn't keen on the story to be honest, it was a bit too 'touchy-feely' for my liking. I just wanted to fix things! Anyway, short game, relaxing, okay overall and a nice change but it didn't make me want to find similar games. Completed.

The Count Lucanor

Click to read

This was on my watch/wish list for quite a long time. It looked interesting, but I was a bit put off by the 'horror' tag on the store page. It was made by the same team as 'Yuppie Psycho' which I have played and thought was pretty good, so when I found a deal I decided to take the plunge.

There was a similar feel to Yuppie Psycho and some of the game elements (crawling to avoid enemies, in particular) are basically the same. I preferred this game though. The story was much better in my eyes and I was more involved in the game. Enough to load earlier saves and get all the endings and 100% it in fact. Only 6 hours in total, but a nice game and I'm more likely to see what other games this team release now.

ISLANDERS

Click to read

My run of 'pretty relaxing and short' games continues with this one. Place structures on an island in particular positions in order to get a high score. There's not much else to say! It looks nice, and there was something very satisfying about building a community. The achievements weren't too tricky to get and most came through playing the game naturally. There were just 3 that I had to make an effort to get. Another game that I could dip into when work was quiet and didn't need to think about too much. This was my favourite game this month, even though it only took 10 hours to 100%. Short and sweet! Into the completed category it goes.

Backlog Additions

Once again, I bought more games than I assassinated! This month saw me add these to my library: Dorfromantik, Inspector Waffles, ScourgeBringer, Eastward, Alba: A Wildlife Adventure, Core Keeper, and Suzerain. As The Bethesda launcher closed, Fallout 76 was moved across to Steam. I had only put a few hours into it on the other platform, so gonna try and give it a go now it’s on Steam and I feel bad for not playing it!

I've put a bit of time into Scourgebringer and have realized that it's one of those games that I like but am unlikely to ever finish! I've also put some time into Suzerain. It has many different endings. I have a few but am unsure if I'll keep playing to get the others or not at the moment. The others are sitting in my backlog waiting to be played.

Partisans 1941

26 hours playtime

18 of 31 achievements
Golf Club Wasteland

15 hours playtime

27 of 27 achievements
Sundered: Eldritch Edition

27 hours playtime

16 of 20 achievements
The Survivalists

60 hours playtime

42 of 42 achievements
Huntdown

25 hours playtime

16 of 19 achievements
Maneater

14 hours playtime

32 of 44 achievements

February-March

So, I wrote a February post and saved it on my PC but never uploaded it! Getting old and forgetful. At least I still had the draft and could add to it for this post.

I had to use up holidays before the end of the business/academic year at the start of April, so took quite a bit of time off in March. I did a little part-time work and some real-world stuff, so not that much time on gaming but more time than usual. I played Wizard of Legend a lot and collected a lot of achievements, but am still falling short of beating the game. I think I need some luck as I’m not gonna get there on skill alone! Also picked up Back 4 Blood and have been enjoying that in the last week or so. L4D2 vibes which I loved back in the day.

Played quite a lot of demos during the Steam even that was on in February. The two games I was most interested in were Tinykin and Restless Soul, which made it onto my wishlist. Anyway, onto the assassinations…

Steam

Partisans 1941

Click to read

Very similar to the old Commandos series and Desperados. Pretty good overall, but a little buggy. I had characters getting stuck in bushes and a few other glitches. There was also this strange feature where enemies would kind of walk into position upon loading a saved game rather than starting from their saved position. This meant I was instantly discovered whereas I wouldn't have been if I wasn't loading from a saved game. Luckily, it was quick and easy to save so I could just start up from an earlier save when this happened.

I like it, but it got a bit boring towards the end. The last mission was a bit frustrating too. I had to find a key which was in a bit of a strange place compared to where you'd find keys in all the other missions. So, I won't be going back to try and complete this, I don't think. Into the beaten pile with a decent 58% of achievements. </p>

Golf Club Wasteland

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I tried a demo of this game about 4-6 months back during one of the Steam events and liked it enough to add it to my wishlist. It's not something that I wanted enough to pay full price for, but I managed to get it in a trade.

Simple game, but it looks good and has a nice atmosphere. The voice on the radio in the background got a little annoying as I kept playing, but I could just turn that down. It was another good game for when I should be working as each hole (or attempt at a hole) would only take a few minutes so I could play between tasks. Some very tricky holes in there, but quite a few of them have a kind of shortcut which you could learn through looking around carefully or trial and error.

As I had previously installed the demo, there was a bit of an achievement bug. A few of them including ones that should pop the first time you play or finish a hole didn't pop. Others were fine, so I had some later more difficult achievements but not those first, basically unmissable, ones. I didn't notice at first and after a bit of googling found that I needed to delete my save data (with leftover data from the demo) and play through again. Actually, I had to play through 3 times to get all the basic achievements which I think should have popped in one run. Then, once that was done, I did the Iron Man game mode. Basically, you can't make a mistake or you start the whole 35 hole course again. So, a game that probably took me 2-3 hours to beat actually added up to 15 hours! I did 100% it though, so a rare 'Completed' game.

Sundered: Eldritch Edition

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I've had this for a long time, but never really got into it. I played it a bit but didn't really know what I was doing or got stuck and gave up. Put more time into it this time and found it pretty enjoyable.

Rougelike with hand drawn graphics. It reminded me a little of Dust: An Elysian Tail. It's a lot darker and the art is a different style, so maybe just the hand drawn aspect? It took me quite a while to get past some bosses, but as it's a game where you can level up and return to bosses, it always felt like I'd get there in the end. Pretty satisfying to finish it. There are more achievements, but they require complete run throughs with different choices (unless you have strategic saves, which I didn't make!). So, not 100% but a satifying 'beaten' game nonetheless.

The Survivalists

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I played a demo of this a year or so ago and was interested in it, but was put off a little by reviews. Finally picked it up and while not perfect, it was a lot of fun.

Team 17 is a development team I'm very familiar with, having owned an Amiga in the '90s. I'm pretty surprised that they're still going, to be honest. They're not as well regarded today as they once were, but they still put out a few good games and the cartoony graphics have been a pretty similar style throughout. This was one of their better recent efforts in my opinion. The control/inventory system isn't great, so I ended up using a controller most of the time but a mouse for the inventory. Using the monkey's was a bit hit and miss too. There were a few repetitive tasks that they were helpful with, but most of the time it was easier for me to just do things myself. I found them most useful to help me in battles or just hanging around with a multitool to make things once I dropped the required materials off.

These small problems didn't put me off playing for 100%. It took quite a while, but never really got boring. Rebuilding the galleon at the end was a bit of a pain, but aside from that, I had no major complaints. The multiplayer achievements were a bit of a pain. It took me a long time to find online games open to me which I wasn't booted from almost immediately. Finally found an open game and got them. There were some issues though, it seemed laggy which affected combat and I had to rely on the monkeys to beat enemies. Might be better if you set up a game with a friend in the same part of the world, I guess. All done now though, 100% and 'Completed'.

Huntdown

Click to read

Simple game but done pretty well. I'm not sure about the Overwhelmingly Positive reviews, but it was enjoyable enough.

Kind of a retro, 80's action-movie style, pixelated, platform shooter (let's seem how many descriptors I can put in a row!). Not too bad to beat the game, but there are some achievements which involve getting through levels without dying and collecting everything. I started going for this (on normal difficulty) but have given up at about the 75% mark. Struggling! I'm not that good at the game, trying over and over again on the same level is removing the enojyment and there's no way I'll do the higher difficulties so I'd still be under 100% anyway. So, just 'Beaten' and onto the next game.

Maneater

Click to read

I played a demo of this a year or so ago and was interested in it, but was put off a little by reviews. Finally picked it up and while not perfect, it was a lot of fun.

Open world kind of game, but in the sea. Actually, much mroe repetitive than other open world games as sharks are kind of limited in what they can do compare to humans!

I enjoyed it enough to play through all the achievements in the base game, but it did get very samey - eat these people, kill this animal, collect these things - in every area. There's a story, but not much to it to be honest so don't expect any twists and turns. I menion this a lot, but it was another of those kind of mindless games that it's easy to drop into for 30-60 mins at a time and easy to pause. Great for when I should be working! The remaining 12 achievements are all in the DLC which I'm not going to get, so although I completed teh base game it's gonna be in the 'Beaten' pile as officially I'm only at 72% of achievements.

Backlog Additions

Oh dear, let’s get this over with shall we…Darksiders Genesis, Curse of the Dead Gods, The Darkside Detective, Batman: Arkham Knight, Borderlands 3, Buddy Simulator 1984, Celeste, Huntdown (beaten), Back 4 Blood, PGA Tour 2021.

Retrowave

30 hours playtime

44 of 44 achievements

January

Work, work, work! I want to get out of the recent habit of posting every two months though, so even though I haven’t played much I’m doing a January post.

I moved apartments successfully. My commute is a little longer, but aside from that things are good. Bigger place, slightly faster internet and cheaper rent. I’ve been here for about a month now and while there are still a few things to do, everything is out of boxes and it is reasonably tidy.

One assination and a lot of new purchases (-.-;)

Steam

Retrowave

Click to read

My most recent Steamgifts win. I'm pretty picky about the giveaways I enter so I win about one game a year.

A very cheap game that I had my eye on before it appeared in a recent bundle. The graphics and music appealed to me and the reviews were positive. I wasn't disappointed. Much more relaxing than I expected. The runs were short but it wasn't frustrating at all. Loved the music too. A lot of the tracks seemed very similar to real 80's songs.

Once I decided to go for 100% achievements, it did get a little grindy but that was partly my fault too. Generally, I don't look at guides unless I'm unsure how to get something. Initially, I thought the money achievements were career earnings (i.e. including what you have spent), but actually, you need to have that figure onscreen. I probably added about 5 hours to my gameplay by spending recklessly early on. Really, I should have only bought new cars and upgrades after hitting the money achievements. Never mind a rare 'completed' game is my reward for all those hours of play!

Backlog Additions

Another naughty month, I’m getting worse! Picked up 8 games - Maneater, Noita, Assemble with Care, Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, Golf Club Wasteland, XCOM: Chimera Squad, Partisans 1941, and Dead Estate. I haven’t beaten any of them either. 2022 can’t continue like this!

Statistics

378	games
10%	never played
28%	unfinished
45%	beaten
16%	completed
2%	won't play

Lists

Won on SteamGifts 24