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

Beginning of December- 409 games, 7418 achievements, 49% 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

Beginning of December - 405 games

1% won't play

9% never played

29% unfinished

44% beaten

17% completed

Garden Story

13 hours playtime

19 of 21 achievements
Darksiders Genesis

21 hours playtime

20 of 30 achievements
Batman: Arkham Knight

52 hours playtime

76 of 113 achievements
Doom & Destiny

13 hours playtime

44 of 44 achievements
inbento

78 minutes playtime

15 of 15 achievements
DREDGE

21 hours playtime

40 of 48 achievements

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

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Had my eye on this for a while and picked it up in a trade (it appeared in a bundle soon after). It's a cute adventure game. A few 'tricky' bits but nothing really difficult, so quite relaxing to play. I've nothing bad to say about this. It's not gonna blow you away, but this is the kind of game I've been enjoying more and more recently. Easy to drop in for a quick session, plays well on the Deck, a simple but interesting story, and not too long. Basically, the kind of game that helps me to wind down a bit and it's satisfying rather than frustrating.

I have actually completed this and it appears as 100% on Steam but the BLAEO site isn't picking up the last couple of achievements. Hopefully, it will be fixed or miraculously fix itself in the near future.

Darksiders Genesis

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I didn't actually want this game. I made a mistake with keys when trading it and activated it on my own account. I won an earlier Darksiders game on Steamgifts and, while it wasn't 'bad', I wasn't that into it and thought I'd give the series a miss.

I knew what I was in for having played an earlier game. It was pretty much more of the same. I don't remember the ability to switch characters in the other game I played (Darksiders 2, I think) but that's probably my bad memory! Different story, but the graphics and controls were basically the same.Gameplay - hack and slash, fantasy setting, collect lots of things. As with 2, I didn't dislike it. I wasn't really interested in the story but it was engaging enough and the levels were varied enough to keep me playing. Main story is beaten and I got quite a few achievements. The remaining ones are mainly speed and difficulty-based, although there are things I didn't collect. Beaten.

Batman Arkham Knight

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This is the third Batman game I got (along with Batman: Arkham City and Batman: Arkham Asylum). I beat the other two, but these games have a lot of achievements, so 100% is a bit unrealistic for me. I can't really remember getting this. I guess it was in a bundle, a deep discount, or I got a good trade as it's not a game that would be on my wishlist.

The mechanics of this game aren't so different from Darksiders now I think about it, but I enjoyed this more. The story had a lot of different villains in it and was pretty interesting. The DLC wasn't great, but a few parts were quite fun. As with Darksiders, this is a game that's easy to drop into for a while. Depending on my mood, I could try to advance the main story, complete a side mission, or just spend 15 minutes collecting things. So, even if I didn't play for long, I was still picking up an achievemnt or two or could see I was getting closer to one. A lot of skill / time based achievements remain (as with the other Batman games I have) but the main story is done and I have a respectable 67%, so this gets the Beaten tag.

Doom & Destiny

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The turn-based combat RPG and RPG maker tags on this game would normally mean I ignore it, but the 'Overwhelmingly Positive' Steam reviews and seeing the game recommended elsewhere got my attention. It sat low on my wishlist for a while but I picked it up in one of the recent sales.

I liked the story and the writing. There are quite a few sections of the game with typos and strange English (the most annoying one is in the achievements themselves 'Reach Chapetr 3' aghhh!) but I liked the story and humour in the game. Lots of references to other games and pop culture in there. I'm not keen on turn-based combat and this didn't change my opinion about that, but the other elements kept me interested. I used a guide to make sure that I got all the achievements as there are quite a few that are easy to miss. So, a fairly successful gamble based on that 'Overwhelmingly Positive' rating. I'm glad I played it and it's another completed game, but I'm unlikely to pick up anything similar in the near future.

Inbento

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A simple puzzle game that was 80% off in the Steam sale. Place different food in a bento box to match the pattern on the screen. Later on you get different controls to shift multiple sections or to swap food around. Difficult to explain but it's fairly intuative. It looks cute, is challenging and pretty fun overall. The usual thing with puzzle games for me. Simple at the start, becomes tricky, then hard puzzles with genuine feelings of achievement when I complete a level, then finally too much for my tired old brain and I refer to a guide after staring at the screen for ages. A guide assisted 100% and into the Completed pile.

Dredge

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Believe the hype. Dredge is good. Got this in a trade and I was keen to play, so got stuck in pretty much straight away.

A fishing adventure with a dark undercurrent. It's not a 'scary' game, but there is an undercurrent of forboding and expectation that something bad will happen. I think the game instills that feeling very well. Right at the start of the game, I was reluctatnt to head out in the dark even though there was no sign of danger. Just the mood that had been set and the visuals put me off it. Like being a kid again! The end of the story is a little strange, but it doesn't detract from the game as a whole. I enjoyed collecting everything, doing the tasks I was given, and working my way towards the bigger goals. I have 100% in the main game, but the Steam achievements include the DLC achievements too so I' sitting at 83% officiallly. I'm not sure about the DLC, I've read mixed reviews and it doesn't seem to be that much more content so I'm not keen on buying it just yet. Maybe when there is a big sale. Beaten for now.

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

Mail Mole

5 hours playtime

25 of 31 achievements
Children of Morta

19 hours playtime

38 of 45 achievements
Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition

47 hours playtime

59 of 59 achievements
Kaze and the Wild Masks

12 hours playtime

11 of 25 achievements
RESTLESS SOUL

7 hours playtime

30 of 30 achievements
Chicken Police

7 hours playtime

31 of 31 achievements
Terror of Hemasaurus

11 hours playtime

30 of 30 achievements

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

Click to read

A 3D platformer. It's a simple game but was lots of fun and there are plenty of challenges in there too. I doubt I'll get good enough to do the boss rush or speedrun achievements, so I'm content with Beaten for now. A quick look at a trailer will pretty much reveal all you need to know about this game, no surprises.

Children of Morta

Click to read

I didn't finish the DLC but the main story is done. Graphically and with the fantasy setting, this isn't a game I'd normally go for but I tried it on gamepass a while back and was interested enough to pick it up when I could get a good deal.

Tight controls, plenty of additional achievements aside from the main storyline, and great voice acting. That's something I don't really pay much attention to, but it really stood out in this game. Interesting story in there, but tbh I did zone out at times and just waited to get back into the action! I started to grind the DLC a bit, but it seems like it will take me a long time, so Beaten for now and I may come back to it.

Sleeping Dogs

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An open-world gem. The game that the Yakuza series could have been!

So, I should start out by saying I enjoyed Yakuza 0, but it did feel very repetitive. Then I tried another in the series and just couldn't bring myself to keep playing. Now, Sleeping Dogs - yeah, it's a bit old so the graphics are a little dated, but this was the highlight of my gaming in this block. There was a good story at the core of the game, the missions weren't pointless fetch quests (yes, I'm looking at you Yakuza, with your 3-4 go and find toilet paper requests in a row!) and I was always interested and engaged. I mean, 47 hours and 100% for someone with my attention span is surely evidence! The ghosty DLC was weaker, but the Bruce Lee-inspired one was a lot of fun too. If you haven't played it yet, don't let the 2012 release tag put you off and go grab it. Completed.

Kaze and the Wild Masks

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Picked this up on thje strength of reviews. Definitely not from the trailer, which was a very weird style with human actors - kind of like a TV commercial for kids toys.

It was good. I mean, I can see why it got good reviews, but there's nothing particularly.... novel.

It's Sonic really, isn't it? Sonic and a few other platformers mixed up a bit. I'm not particularly good at platformers, but managed to beat the main story in a reasonable amount of time so I guess it's not too difficult. There are more achievements and things to collect but I've had enough! Just didn't really click with me, but I'd recommend it if you like classic platformer action. Beaten.

RESTLESS SOUL

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Played demo of this a while back, I think. It stuck with me, so I was on the lookout. I missed an Alienware (?) giveaway but got it in the end.

A kind of RPG where you play as a ghost trying to get back to the land of the living.

In a lot of my little summaries, I'm pretty vague and just write about games not really clicking with me, getting old, or being repetitive. I'm going to be similarly vague here, but this is one that did click. I just don't know why! I guess a lot of it was the writing and the humour. Corny kind of jokes but they weren't too repetitive. The gameplay was simple and the battles weren't difficult. It was a pretty short game, I just went back to find a few collectibles and get that 100% to make this - Completed.

Chicken Police

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Meh. Not sure what I expected, but this wasn't it. Not much of a game, more of a visual novel.

Again, a game that I got based on the positive reviews. I was still a little hesitant because I thought the anthropomorphic graphics were pretty jarring so this wasn't anything like a priority purchase but I did get it in the end. Dialogue choices seemed like the only real 'gameplay' in this and the story wasn't strong enough to keep me interested. After playing for a while, I knew it wasn't for me and opened up a guide so that I could get most of the achievements in one playthrough and avoid having to go back to it. I did need to replay a few sections but got them all fairly smoothly. Completed and a lesson learned, follow my gut instinct more!

Terror of Hemasaurus

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A homage to the old game Rampage

I enjoyed Super Blood Hockey enough to keep my eye on this release from the same (one person?) developer. Terror of Hemasaurus is Rampage with a few extra elements. You destroy buildings, kick or throw people and cars, attack helicopters and blimps. There's a story tagged onto this (I'm not sure there was much of one in Ramapage) which, while not particularly compelling, explains why you would be smashing things and gives you a bit of motivation. There's an environmental theme int her e too but it's not rubbed in your face and is more of a funny approach. Simple fun, good to get on a sale, and not too challenging to get 100% - Completed.

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

Olija

5 hours playtime

10 of 10 achievements
Spiritfarer

33 hours playtime

28 of 39 achievements
Luna's Fishing Garden

3 hours playtime

14 of 14 achievements
Cozy Grove

68 hours playtime

56 of 70 achievements

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

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Great game for the Deck. A pixelated adventure game. Slightly strange story about a sailor in a 'mysterious country' with people wearing what looked like Japanese clothing and islands with Japanese names, and a legendary harpoon. It kind of worked though.

The 'very positive' rating on Steam kind of sums it up. There's nothing really groundbreaking there, but it all works well and it's fun to play. Enough of a challenge to be an enjoyable game that you want to keep playing, but 100% in about 5 hours. Good in a sale or a bundle.

Spiritfarer

Click to read

I won this in a discord channel's scavenger hunt competition. A game I kind of let pass me by when it was on sale or bundled somewhere but I'm glad I gave it a try.

I'm gonna be honest here. I kind of zoned out a bit in some of the cut scenes. I played kind of a grim reaper type role, helping spirits cross over into another world? Presumable where they would be at peace. Most of these characters seemed to already know me and made reference to things in the past or people we both knew, I think. Yeah, I should pay attention. I know!

It looked great. The ship with buildings on it was fun and kind of novel. All the characters in the game had their own personalities and were very well done. It would be difficult to play the game and not feel anything at all. All the characters reflect on the different kinds of lives they had and are in different emotional states when they finally leave to the other side. So, overall a great game. I played for over 30 hours when I realised the end of the main story was available. I could have continued to try and get a few more achievements, but... I'm sure you can guess if you've read any of my other posts... Yes, I'd had enough! ;D. Haha! So, just beaten and 71%.

Luna's Fishing Garden

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I noticed this based on the rating alone. There aren't many games that are Overwhelmingly positive' on Steam that you don't know much about, but this was one of them. Had it low down on my wish/watch list for a while and got it in a sale.

Kind of an idle game. Very simple. Collect things and do tasks. There's a story but not much to it. In fact, the game is very short too. 100% in about 3.5 hours and I wasn't rushing. I'm not sure I'd recommend it, but it was kind of mindless fun for a few hours. I guess as an 'idle' game, it matches the description well.

Cozy Grove

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This is a difficult one. I kind of have a love-hate relationship with this game. Some of the reviews and tags on Steam describe it as a 'life sim', 'Animal crossing', 'a ritual'. and there is mention of 'depth of storytelling'. The one I would agree with is it's 'a ritual' or, maybe it's like a drug.

I put 68 hours into this game and now, after finishing the main story, I'm not sure why. I didn't really gain anything from it. I feel like it was just a habit or a ritual that I needed to continue until I finished it because I didn't want to go back and do it again. Like I was in a cult. I'm going to quote another Steam review here, 'The aesthetic is lovely, the vibe is great, the characters enjoyable, and I was quite keen on the idea of just popping in for fairly short sessions each day - but after a week, when I loaded up for my 8th consecutive day, I realised I had absolutely zero motivation to grind through another round of incredibly repetitive hidden object fetch quests.' This sums up my feelings for the game pretty well, but I guess my motivation to get it off my backlog was greater and I just stuck at it and so I continued to pop in every day for about 2 months.

There were 3-4 more achievements I could have got, but when I saw the option to end the main story I went for it. Getting 100% achievements requires the DLC, I think, and there was no way I was getting that! 80% and in the beaten pile. Thank god! I do not recommend this game unless you want to get sucked into a daily routine of hidden object quests. Friends don't let friends play 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

A Short Hike

7 hours playtime

12 of 12 achievements
Battle Chef Brigade

17 hours playtime

16 of 25 achievements

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

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Gift from a firned. It's been on my wishlist for a long time. I actually tried it briefly on Gamepass and decided I liked it enough to get on Steam, so stopped pretty quickly. Easy to dip into and pretty relaxing, so a good game for when I'm not spending hours at a time on the PC. Worked well on the Steamdeck too. Pretty familiar to most people, so no review aside form that! 100% done, so 'completed'.

Battle Chef Brigade

Click to read

Another gift! Had this on my wishlist mainly based on the visuals and strong reviews, I didn't really know what it was about.

Primarily a 'matching' game, but with enough variety to stay interesting. I've read comments that it was too short, but it felt just right for me. There are fighting elements to the game, but these are pretty basic and most of the 'skill' comes from the equipment you chose, how you use it, and the matching part. I liked it enough to beat it twice and pick up a few more achievements, but not enough to go for 100%. Probably not good enough to do that either, the daily challenges are tough. So, an above average 64% and 'beaten'.

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,

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Statistics

406	games
9%	never played
29%	unfinished
44%	beaten
17%	completed
1%	won't play

Lists

Won on SteamGifts 24