Smythe’s profile
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Super Blood Hockey
24 hours playtime
33 of 33 achievements
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The Last Campfire
7 hours playtime
22 of 22 achievements
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Witcheye
5 hours playtime
13 of 25 achievements
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Wildfire
20 hours playtime
40 of 60 achievements
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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
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.
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Cyberpunk 2077
97 hours playtime
34 of 44 achievements
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Eldest Souls
12 hours playtime
27 of 50 achievements
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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
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!
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TOEM
7 hours playtime
48 of 48 achievements
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Sheepo
7 hours playtime
12 of 18 achievements
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Tinykin
12 hours playtime
43 of 43 achievements
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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
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.
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Buddy Simulator 1984
7 hours playtime
22 of 30 achievements
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Nuclear Blaze
4 hours playtime
20 of 20 achievements
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Narita Boy
11 hours playtime
34 of 34 achievements
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Mayhem in Single Valley
7 hours playtime
34 of 40 achievements
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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
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!
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art of rally
19 hours playtime
42 of 43 achievements
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Skullgirls 2nd Encore
29 hours playtime
25 of 45 achievements
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Webbed
11 hours playtime
16 of 19 achievements
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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
Skullgirls 2nd Encore
Webbed
My Time at Portia
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.
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Golf Peaks
3 hours playtime
12 of 12 achievements
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The Ramp
51 minutes playtime
12 of 12 achievements
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Kentucky Route Zero
9 hours playtime
24 of 24 achievements
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Sniper Elite 4
36 hours playtime
47 of 85 achievements
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The Darkside Detective
5 hours playtime
30 of 30 achievements
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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
The Ramp
Kentucky Route Zero
Sniper Elite 4
Darkside Detective
Inspector Waffles
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.
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Alba: A Wildlife Adventure
3 hours playtime
9 of 9 achievements
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ISLANDERS
11 hours playtime
26 of 26 achievements
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Suzerain
15 hours playtime
31 of 86 achievements
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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
Islanders
Suzerain
Death's Door
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.
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PGA TOUR 2K21
24 hours playtime
25 of 29 achievements
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Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
4 hours playtime
37 of 37 achievements
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Assemble with Care
80 minutes playtime
14 of 14 achievements
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The Count Lucanor
6 hours playtime
32 of 32 achievements
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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
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
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
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
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
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.
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Partisans 1941
26 hours playtime
18 of 31 achievements
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Golf Club Wasteland
15 hours playtime
27 of 27 achievements
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Sundered: Eldritch Edition
27 hours playtime
16 of 20 achievements
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The Survivalists
60 hours playtime
42 of 42 achievements
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Huntdown
25 hours playtime
16 of 19 achievements
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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
Golf Club Wasteland
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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!
378 | games |
10% | never played |
28% | unfinished |
45% | beaten |
16% | completed |
2% | won't play |