Activities
Today
Yesterday
Head to the comments and get challenged to play 5 games
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.
May 14 2026
May Assassination #3 (Backlog)
Please consider liking my review on Steam - it means a lot to me!
Fine if you get it for free, but frankly, my computer can handle Elden Ring and RDR2 at 60 FPS but couldn't break 20 FPS with this retro baby. And of course there are no graphical settings I can adjust. The post-battle summary tells me I spent 13 minutes in the fight, my Steam Playtime says 25min because of course, lag
Just go watch an episode of Seinfeld instead
Some years since last used this site
Well, since then I kinda dropped Fallout NV
But I’m focusing more on completing 100% the games I enjoy :D
May 13 2026
May Assassination #2 (SG Win / PoP Pick)
Please consider liking my review on Steam - it means a lot to me!
It's been a year and a half since I played the first Figment, so I don't remember much of it, but I have the feeling this is more or less the same thing with very few changes.
The main gameplay elements are still here - some adventuring, a lot of puzzling (mostly good), a lot of combat (mostly bad and dare I say, entirely unnecessary). And while this time the game feels a bit more confident with the pacing, the visuals, and the songs, it falters a lot on the grating and insufferable banter between the two protagonists, and the heavy-handed emotional notes it tries to achieve throughout the story.
What's great here - in the first game, a lot of the areas felt very samey, differing only by the puzzle mechanic you were using to solve them. Here you have a lot of distinctive areas, with the Maze and the investigation bit my favorites. The way the game takes elements of mental health, neurology and psychology and conceptualizes into gameplay elements and story elements is quite frankly, incredible. The musical numbers are really catchy, and the payoff at the end of the game is really well done, particularly after the story dragged for the first 80% of the game.
What's not so great - combat is still a big part of the game, and is still as bad as it was in the first game. It overall feels shorter, probably because it is. Collectables are hidden in the level but not in a fun "let's get out of our way to find them" way, but rather on a "let's paint this collectable with the same color as the background" way, which is just dull. And the dialogue between Dusty and Piper, man, PLEASE, these should be an option to shut them up because they are the worst.
It's overall a shorter game that does very little to be a sequel rather than an expansion pack for the first game, but this is not entirely a bad thing. More confident on visuals and on metaphors, a bit lacking on pacing, combat, and dialogue, Figment 2 is still worth your time if bought on a discount
May 12 2026
#404
#14 of 2026
May 12, 2026
May 11 2026
Just a month, visiting the hospital, visiting my dad, trying to just live and play games :)
Games added in March 2026
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The Signifier Director's Cut
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Dry Drowning
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Simpler Times
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Undusted: Letters from the Past
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The Medium
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Bendy and the Ink Machine
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Recycling Center Simulator
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The LEGO® NINJAGO® Movie Video Game
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Ghost of a Tale
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Spilled!
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Discounty
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Pekoe
0 hours playtime
no achievements
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Tandem: a tale of shadows
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Creepy Tale 3: Ingrid Penance
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Inua
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Logic Town
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Chants of Sennaar
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Tin Hearts
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Glass Masquerade 4: Constellations
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FIND KITTENS 7: Cookie Town
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FIND KITTENS 4: Aetherpunk
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Perfume Atelier
Games added: 22 (2 more than the last month)
Games won: 0 (2 less as last month)
Did a lot of trading to get rid of unwanted keys.
Really really looking forward for some of these, as always recommendations are welcome :D
May 10 2026
April 2026 Update
Next update (works only on profile page)
Backpack Hero (Q4 2023) ⭐️⭐⭐☆☆
Inventory_management
Tactic
3h | 2 of 35 (6%)
- The characters are cute
The bad 👎
- It does feel grindy, repetitive and generic
Conclusion:
It's just not a game for me. Beating dungeons while having to micromanage inventory. Then selling inventory loot for bits of material to rebuild a town. There is some basic story in the background, but it didn't look interesting enough for me to invest any more time into this title. I don't know the landscape of the "inventory manager" genre, but if you want a good dungeon crawler, go and play Hammerwatch :D
☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.) |
☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs |
☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves |
☑ Can run on potato ☐ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster |
☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful |
☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action |
☑ Resolution, volume only ☐ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options |
☐ No map ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel |
- Gun-focused builds are more useful than in the first game
- Locations are bigger and varied
- Good visuals and gore mechanics
The bad 👎
- There is not much difference in the playthrought between different characters, and even unlocked abilities don't feel like an upgrade
- Not a big variety of enemies
- Bosses are a joke; they die before their dialogue ends and have no special mechanics
- A lot of useless fetch quests that can't be disabled from popping up on the map
- Shaders are recompiled at each game restart. Really?
- Plot is shallow and predictable
- I was disconnected from the host multiple times, but at least it's easy to reconnect
- Crafting of better-than-basic mods requires a ton of exotic materials, which are grindy to obtain
Conclusion:
I hoped Dead Island 2 would massively improve on Dead Island 1. And all it did was tweak things a bit, like gore and firearms. Otherwise, it feels like a very similar game, and the first game was not great.
Details
☐ Bare-bone ☑ Average ☐ Good |
We are immune survivor of zombie apocalypse. That gives us the quest to save humankind by doing mundane tasks and fetch quests for other non-immune characters. There are no interesting characters or relationships, the plot is extremely predictable, and there is not even a hint of "wow" moment. Very average and forgettable. The map is littered with notes, but as there are so many zombies around, there is no time to read them... and then, when we are in a safe zone, reading a note from a location visited 10 minutes ago feels like a waste of time. |
☐ Boring ☑ Average ☐ Good |
Get a fetch quest (main missions also feel like fetch quests), kill zombies on a way to the objective, return with the object. Rinse and repeat. We need to visit workshop benches to repair our weapons and craft ammo, visit safe houses to dump junk we carry to the trader. The co-op part of the game works well. |
☑ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☐ Magic / powers ☐ Advanced combat |
Run, jump, shoot. No parkour. Each charactter can choose one jump-kick, scream, and ground slam modification. But they feel more like cosmetic changes than gameplay-altering abilities. There is an infection mechanic, where specific ability cards contribute to infection progress. No/low infection means we have normal health regen. High infection means we have no health regen (and health items don't heal us as much), but can stay in the fury more for longer and deal more damage. |
☐ Clunky and stiff ☑ Adequate ☐ Fluid and enjoyable |
They work, nothing extraordinary. There is noticeable auto-aim with keyboard and mouse, which can be turned off. |
☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Over complicated |
Inventory space is very limited, and weapon management is not great. There is "external" strongbox where we can keep overflow weapons, but it's not possible to reorganize it without taking items out first. Weapons are organized in storebox in order they were put in, so if we have more stored weapons than free inventory slots... it's not possible to organize efficiently. But then we constantly get slightly better weapons, so any form of management is not necessary. We can also pay to have weapon level-up to our current character level, which boosts it's stats. Menus are also not easy to access, with inventory, notes, journal etc. feel like they were designed by separate people without communication. |
☐ Boring and generic ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Great |
The combat is eh. Enemies are brainless and too bullet-spongy. Having to slash zombie's arm 2-3 times before it falls off, when there are multiple zombies around us, is not fun. Blocking also doesn't feel useful. We focus on getting headshots with weapons, or hacking at zombie's torso. Or just running past enemies later on, just to get to the next objective faster 😂 |
☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.) |
☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs |
☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves |
☐ Can run on potato ☑ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster |
☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful |
☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action |
☐ Resolution, volume only ☐ Basic graphic settings ☑ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options |
☐ No map ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel |
April 2026
Awkward April
Ongoing
FFXIV
Guilty Gear Isuka
The black sheep of the series and only now do I understand why. Not only does it not want to run well out of a fresh install… but it plays terribly too. Trying to change window sizes, resolutions, and trying to get a controller or leverless to work were all battles each on their own. Even when I got my leverless to work… I found I could not switch directions without throwing or being thrown. Of course once I got everything mostly functioning I felt that the game was more of a beat ‘em up than a fighting game… Imagine my surprise when there is a mode just like that and plays wayyyyyy better than the story/arcade. The arcade mode is absurdity incarnate. You don’t go up a bracket but instead get to the next fighter by leveling up during your fights. After so many levels you start to fight increasingly difficult opponents and even multiple at a time. It gets chaotic to say the least and whatever was meant to be the health bar… well it was lost to me. If you manage to get through the onslaught of chaotic battle all the way to level 100… you face the boss. Dear lord does this boss suck as it’s only damagable part is at jumping attack height and it has many attacks to push you back and/or ignore yours. I’ll give the boss credit, it’s definitely a unique design.
Frankly, after the arcade mode I was only willing to give the beat ‘em up mode a bit of my time before shelving the game for good. The experience was just that awful. It was only during the beat ‘em up mode that I realized there was a button specifically for switching direction… though I don’t think it ever worked on my actual arcade run anyways.
Recommend? No… just no.
Fighter of Choice: Bridget
Smash bros like but with a fairly limited roster of characters that you’ll unlock in the story and even a few guest characters as well. Despite supposedly supporting it, the game does not like controller much at all. Menus often go through multiple selections at a single press of a direction. Not sure if it was because of the controller but characters controlled sluggishly and the combat felt very limited. I also had trouble parsing how some characters could possibly be viable. The upside of bad controls is that the enemy AI is pretty dumb often falling into the same loop or outright eliminating themselves. Bosses don’t have that luxury but they have a decent enough game plan that makes them fair. Story is fine if not mostly silly while the scenes are well animated with some decent voice work. Not a great amount of variety and pretty disappointed the guest characters don’t get any scenes.
Recommend? A bit more midground but overall subpar. Definitely not a Smash Bros replacement. Scenes were nice though.
Dino Crisis 3 
DC1 was a Survival Horror game that leaned heavily into puzzles. DC2 was a very fun arcade shooter. DC3 continued the arcade shooter aspect but merged it with some survival horror aspects of the first and it ended up being a horrible abomination.
What were these aspects? Well, for one limiting just about everything. Inventory space (items starting out at a limit of 1 each), shop items, the amount of upgrades you can get at each save station (usually 1 upgradable gauge across all options and a few upgradable inventory slots), and even capping the amount of kills you can earn points from… which doesn’t make any sense in an arcade shooter. The only benefit that the kill gauge cap gives you is that it gives a bonus depending on how full it is when you turn it in which only incentivizes you to kill and combo the easy and small enemies rather than dealing with the bigger targets. Dino god forbid you slip into a boss battle with a full kill gauge bar. Speaking of disincentivize dealing with bigger dinos not only do they hurt a whole lot at all stages of the game but every medium to boss enemy are just the spongiest of bullet sponges there ever were. The base gun is infinite but does low damage but the other two weapons with limited ammo? Well, those don’t do much either with probably one of the worst shotguns in a game I have ever played and the laser gun does okay with such a slow fire rate. You do get these sort of drone alternate weapons that do good but since they are also used to unlock doors you are trained to basically never use them unless you wish to grind and buy more. Bosses aren’t very engaging as they often have big area of attacks and will take forever to whittle down often requiring the same strategy of strafing while shooting.
With the new space setting it feels a lot like Metroid and Mega Man X. You have your dash boosts that you can use to hover, speed, and jump higher. Charge shots that will destroy certain objects and maybe even hit an enemy if you have the time and aiming ability, as awkward as it can be. The ship itself is modular so it changes shape depending on terminal commands making exploration that of a metroidvania. Unfortunately utilizing the map is a confusing mess that makes a point to constantly beep with your desired location. A lot of the areas are pretty confusing with annoying platform sections. The camera does no favor as it has near-fixed camera angles that always manage to switch at awkward times both in traversal and in combat. The “space dinos” all look weird and have odd abilities, especially considering we kind of just get introduced to them out of nowhere. Despite having two characters, one is so underutilized you’ll forget you even get to play them.
Though DC hasn’t had a particularly great story history, DC3 takes the cake as far as being the worst. First and foremost, suddenly breaking off from the previous two stories into this futuristic space adventure is a whiplash into itself. We also just get thrust into things pretty quickly with little explanation (assuming I didn’t accidentally skip a huge cutscene or maybe it was in a manual?). The story progression is about as abysmal as the gameplay progression often hanging on by a thread of purpose and even worse character interactions.The ending is pretty lackluster which is only followed by a tolerable but more of the same bonus mode.
Recommend? I’m glad I got to play it and see exactly what happened to the Dino Crisis series… but I can not in ANY way recommend this. Not even to my worst enemies. There’s probably issues I haven’t even touched upon or details I’ve omitted.
NOTE: Even when I was trying to look up details on this game it was difficult to find almost as if the collective human race chose to forget about this game.
Project Lunky
Developed by Lixian, Markipliers editor, is a game based on a piece of Markiplier history and lore. I’ve played a game of his before and you can usually expect a short horror game. What I did not expect was a roguelite. Granted it’s very basic and some upgrades are NEEDED to actually progress as combat is largely attack and block (attacks are largely unavoidable). Still, given the right upgrade path you can find a pretty quick way to get everything and have a breeze of a time. There is little attack variation and only one kind of enemy. Upgrades you get our nice and it’s a decent little cycle. The axe being far superior to anything the gun really offers, you’ll find the melee route is the best.
Recommend? It’s fun, neat, and free (though you are more than welcome to donate any amount you wish.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (Remake) 
0
1
11
23
Watched someone play Ready or Not and felt the urge to play an FPS… but better. Adhering to my youthful days of MW2 I thought I’d try the remake of the original MW. Very quickly I was back in the saddle and thanks to the continued snap shooting system I was able to easily play on veteran with nearly no issue. Unfortunately there are a few missions (often involving vehicle sections) where this difficulty became a problem but few and far between. I don’t really remember it happening much in the originals but I often found myself getting block or trapped by my AI teammates as I tried to join the line, enter doorways, or even just general traversal. Story was solid enough though I can’t really compare as I never played the original Modern Warfare
Recommend? Story wise it felt pretty solid and a nice nostalgic trip down a CoD memory lane. Guns were responsive and battles felt mostly rewarding.
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Sherlock Holmes The Awakened
14 hours playtime
28 of 28 achievements
Report #428: Sherlock Holmes The Awakened
I am a fan on these kind of games. Just finished another Sherlock Holmes game, where you are trying to solve one big case, but on the way you need to tackle quite a lot of mini cases. Usually you need to investigate some scenes, find the interaction points and then get a lot of hints or non-hints and trying to figure out how the link together.
Never played the original, just this remake of The Awakened, so cannot compare.