Activities
Today
July 2026
Little Problems: It was harder than what I was expecting. I thought it was okay but I don’t think I like this type of puzzle. My brain really struggled figuring out and remembering who did what. The cats were cute though. 6/10.
Arcade Spirits: Also just kind of okay. I didn’t vibe with the humor but I did like most of the characters. I had very low expectations with the voice acting but it wasn’t as cringe as I was expecting. It was actually pretty good. The routes I did were QueenBee, Ashley, and Naomi, though I can’t rank them because I feel like they were all relatively the same quality. 7/10.
Starpoint Gemini 2: I liked the gameplay loop, but I think forcing myself to beat the campaign made me dislike the game a little bit. I did not care about the story at all, I actually stopped paying attention to it. If I didn’t make myself beat the campaign, I think I’d have stopped at 10 hours in and have a better experience. I just felt very underpowered in the story quests even though I thought I had the best ship/equipment I could get for my rank. There were also a lot of times where you have to fight multiple enemies in a row, and when you die, you start from the nearest station you were in, fly back to the mission area, wait for the long unskippable dialogues to end, and fight again. So it also just felt tedious to do. The free roam was more fun because combat actually felt balanced and more fair. Either way it’s a 6/10.
Jolly Good: Cakes and Ale: One of the more unique Hosted Games/Choice of Games because it’s a British comedy instead of yet another fantasy drama. While it’s well-written, the story just feel incomplete. It’s supposed to be a trilogy but the second game is taking way too long to be released. I mean this one was released in Nov 2020 and we’re only getting the sequel in Dec 2026 and it won’t even be the full game, just 1/3rd of it (apparently the second game was too long so the author has to slowly release the rest). There’s a lot of replayability but the story as a whole is just lacking at the moment. I’d still give this an 8/10 but honestly, just check out the author’s other game set in the same universe called Tally Ho which is actually a complete story. I’d recommend waiting for this one to be fully released (though that might be in 2030 minimum lol).
Our World is Ended: The art, voice acting, characters, and OST (for my fellow VOCALOID fans, 164 made the vocal songs in the game) are great and it felt like a very well-polished visual novel. The story itself is mediocre though and the dialogues felt repetitive at times. The humor wasn’t the best either. I didn’t really find most of the “jokes” funny. It’s just perverted for the sake of being perverted. There was also a lot of anime bullshit that might be hard to ignore if you’re not used to ignoring them. But the characters were really fun and they definitely made this game better than it should be.
I was initially planning on giving this an 8 because I really enjoyed the characters but I think Tatiana’s route disgusted me too much and also the secret route (Reina) and just that character’s ending in general disappointed me. I did their route last because I thought it’d be the game’s true ending in the sense that we could save them but no, it’s more of a bad ending and even the end screen says so (“Our World is bad end”). I really enjoyed the early to middle point but I think the later parts and the endings were too underwhelming and disappointing so I’m giving this a 5/10.
Route rankings: Natsumi >>>>> Asano = Yuno > Iruka > Owari >>>>> Tatiana = Secret Route.
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Arcade Spirits
12 hours playtime
15 of 21 achievements
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Jolly Good: Cakes and Ale
27 hours playtime
62 of 62 achievements
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Little Problems
4 hours playtime
24 of 24 achievements
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Our World Is Ended.
120 hours playtime
40 of 40 achievements
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Starpoint Gemini 2
22 hours playtime
28 of 52 achievements
Goals for August 2026
I didn’t manage to beat most of the games I had planned for this month because OWiE took too much of my time. I’m really glad to be done with that VN. Anyhoo, I’m dropping the RE4R 100% idea for now. I joined Play or Pay last month and I want to start beating my picked games. I’m not sure if I have the time for 100%ing RE4R. I still want to 100% Pentiment though. Danganronpa 2 and Wantless are probably going to take me multiple months before beating again, similar to OWiE and SG2.
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Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition
31 hours playtime
no achievements
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Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
5 hours playtime
0 of 47 achievements
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Middle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor™
5 hours playtime
2 of 74 achievements
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Pentiment
20 hours playtime
23 of 41 achievements
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Penumbra: Overture
52 minutes playtime
no achievements
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Resident Evil 4
15 hours playtime
14 of 46 achievements
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Spirit of the North
6 hours playtime
4 of 24 achievements
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Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven
58 hours playtime
30 of 63 achievements
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Wantless
3 hours playtime
1 of 38 achievements
Yet another 100%. I have a few games hanging around with 1 achievement left and this is the last of the ones where it isn’t a huge pain in the butt achievement.
#424
#34 of 2026
July 30, 2026
Jul 28 2026
Creeper World 4 completed! I honestly never cared about 100%ing games until I joined this site, and it’s really satisfying and I nice reason to dig deeper into games I haven’t played in a while and love. I will almost certainly not 100% everything but it’s nice to give that extra attention to games that have been important to me.
July 2026 results
| Priority | Backlog | Added this month | Beaten | Removed |
| High | 136 | 1 | 1 | - |
| Medium | 228 | 1 | - | - |
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy
Jul 27 2026
- A better month than expected, the heat wave is going to hit in the next few days but we now have shutters to keep us from roasting like fried chickens
Mostly completed or played - July 2026
- Finally finished Company of heroes 3 ! It was weird. Fun in short sessions, but hard to get motivated to finish it. Italy campaign is like a Total War without scenario. There is though a good North Africa side-campaign.- Short but really good board game K2, once you understand the rules it feels like climbing.
Dogpile
16 hours, 19 of 19 achievements
Company of Heroes 3
49 hours (15h this month), 19 of 24 achievements
K2: Digital Edition
6 hours, 13 of 15 achievements
AIRHEART - Tales of broken Wings
14 hours, 26 of 42 achievements
June/July theme - Beach Read
- Little Mouse’s Encyclopedia is a short walk with a few animals and plants. Every time you click, a short summary pops up, just like in the magazine “La Hulotte.” The little mouse is cute. I had to play twice to unlock all the achievements, and it was much faster and easier with a controller.- Storm Boy is a little story about a boy and his best friend a pelican. Short but very touching. On point game for this month theme.
- Beyond Blue, i was happy to see fish just like at the aquarium. Grinding through scanning fish isn't exactly thrilling, but great soundtrack though !
Little Mouse's Encyclopedia
2 hours, 20 of 20 achievements
Storm Boy
33 minutes, 11 of 11 achievements
Beyond Blue
5 hours, 30 of 30 achievements
In progress - plan for next month
- Received KCD2 from a friend for bday, so i jumped right into it, and also into another game he'd given me a long time ago Star wars squadrons (that is cool but multiplayer is empty now my fault i waited too long)- Tailor simulator is a win from SG, still early access with obvious issues but fun and original
STAR WARS™: Squadrons
12 hours, 2 of 47 achievements
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
20 hours, 5 of 83 achievements
Trench Lord: Eastern Front
2 hours, 5 of 78 achievements
Ara History Untold: Anniversary Edition
11 hours (no playtime this month), 14 of 45 achievements
Tailor Simulator (SG win)
8 hours, 11 of 18 achievements
Have fun for next month !
July Assassination #2 (SG Win/ PoP Pick)
Please consider liking my review on Steam - it means a lot to me!
Black The Fall is a good, not great 2.5D side-scroller puzzle game that is decent, competent, but yet, probably not worth your time.
Starting with the pros -- the game has an incredible art direction and very frequently looks great. It is also short enough that it feels respectful of your time, and the puzzles frequently are quite good (not always thou), with gimmicks evolving as you move further into the game (from standalone laser pointer to controlling the robot, for instance). Most of the puzzles are physics-based and the physics are generally fine. All in all, it gives you a good time and is over before it gets too old.
That said, the flaws are very hard to ignore. Narrative-wise, the game is quite minimalistic, which is a nice way to say it has the shell of a story and that`s it. And I think that's a shame, because the universe is quite interesting and well realized, but the game refuses to explain who you are, what you are doing there, and why you should care, which lower the narratives stakes and leave a lot of value at the table. While I mentioned most puzzles are good, some are incredibly obtuse and sometimes hampered by the same great art direction, which obscures elements of the solution in plain sight. I ended up using a guide a few times (mostly on the second half), sometimes just to figure out the movement part of it (since movement in this game is reaaaally janky). It's a shame, because there are few things as frustrating as failing a puzzle because of poor movement (looking at you, Hue).
The game is not incredibly well optimized, frequently hovering around 30FPS in the same rig where I played Elden Ring and RDR2 at 60FPS. Soundtrack is basically non-existent and most cheevos are impossible to figure out in your first playthrough. Actually, I saw many comparisons between this game and Limbo/Inside, but for me the best comparison is with the Oddworld series -- both series ask you a lot of mechanical precision on a puzzle game yet fail to deliver a satisfying movement system, and both series ask you to die a lot in order to learn enemy movements and timing, which is a really cheap progression system.
All in all, if you have this game in your library you might as well play it, but if you don't, I wouldn't buy it.
Jul 25 2026
#423
#33 of 2026
July 26, 2026
Jul 22 2026
#422
#32 of 2026
July 22, 2026
So head into the comments and get challenged to get some games removed from the backlog before the next big title gets released (or delayed)
For Pickers. Just copy paste and complete the data :)
* [GAME#1](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#1-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#1-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#2](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#2-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#2-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#3](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#3-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#3-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#4](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#4-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#4-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#5](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#5-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#5-HLTBTIME
- Please make sure your games are sorted by completion before applying.
- If you so desire and you have at least 5 unplayed SG wins, the 5 games can be picked out of your SG wins (instead of only 2/5). Just note it in your application comment.
- Note in your post if you're ok playing multiplayer only games.
- Same for Early Access (I know some people want to wait for release).
- When you finish one (or more) of the games picked for you, please post an update by replying to your picker's comment.
- If the game has achievements, you can link to either the Steam or Astats page corresponding to your progress.
- If the game doesn't have achievements, please post a screenshot showing your completion.
- Finally, if you have completed all the games that were assigned to you but want another go at it, feel free to post another application.
- You can pick for/challenge up to 2 fellow assassins, please refrain to pick more so everybody who wants get a chance at it.
- You can pick for anybody who has applied and hasn't been given a list yet, unless they specified otherwise (see next point). It is recommended to signal with a "reserved" comment that you're currently picking for that person. This way it'll avoid the situation where you spend time picking games just to come back to somebody's comment 2 minutes prior.
- Please use the following criteria when picking a list for somebody.
- Pick exactly 5 games
- Length-wise: at least 2 short games (under 10h to beat) and 2 medium (under 15-20h). You can use HLTB to check the time, or more conveniently the Enhanced Steam browser extension (it shows the HLTB time directly on the game's steam page). That rule can be overridden by the bottom (i.e. pick 5 short games) but not the other way around, as not everybody has the same time to dedicate to gaming.
- Pick two SG wins unless the person specified SG wins only, in which case pick only in the applicant's SG wins list.
- Quality-wise: at least 3 of the 5 games should have a positive (or above) rating. You can use this site to quickly sort games in a user's library by ratings (thanks to JaffaCaffa for the suggestion).
- Please, respect the applicant's choice regarding multiplayer-only and Early access games, as well as other requests (exclusion of certain genre etc.).
- Please use the code below to post your comment, it's already formatted, you just have to copy/paste & complete the data.
Do I have to participate in this event?
No, this is an event to help you reduce your backlog. If you already have a plan and don't want anyone to pick games for you, you're free to ignore it.
What happens if I don’t participate in the event?
Absolutely nothing.
What happens if I play all the games picked for me this month?
Still nothing. (You might get a shiny profile badge at some later date. And you can come back for another batch.)
What if I don’t have time to play 5 games?
Don’t worry, one is enough, we’re just asking the pickers to select 5 to give the player a little choice.
One of the game picked for me won’t run on my computer for X or Y reason, what do I do?
If this happens, please notify the picker by replying his comment and ask them to pick a replacement. If the original picker don’t give you an answer within 24h, don’t panic, just leave a comment and we’ll pick one for you. Meanwhile, you could try one of the other picked games if you haven't played them all yet.
I played all 5 games that were picked for me and I want more!
If you have completed all 5 games and reported your completion to the original comment, you can make a new request for another list.
When picking for other people, can I only pick “never played” games?
Not necessarily, you can also pick games that seem to have been abandoned but haven’t been categorized as “won’t play”. No beaten or completed games, or games being currently played obviously.
Why are there so many rules for picking the games? I can’t be bothered!
We’re trying to make this enjoyable for everyone so if you decide to pick games for others, please read and follow the rules. I’ve tried to make it as easy as possible for the pickers too, but if it’s bothering you too much, remember you don’t need to pick games for others to join the challenge.
I’m new here, can I join the challenge?
Yes of course (and welcome to BLAEO). Please just be sure to have your games sorted by progress before signing up for the challenge, to make it easier for your picker.