January’s Stats
aka. The Status is more or less Quo
How’s been 2019 for you so far fellow Assassins? Been playing anything good to start the year?
For me, it started pretty well, especially backlog wise, as the workload has been pretty reasonable lately, I managed to get some gaming done. I’ve been playing a good chunk of farming/crafting games between Slime Rancher and My Time in Portia. Not that any of them replaced Stardew Valley in my gamer’s heart, but they’re both pretty good and relaxing. I decided to make a list with everybody’s suggestions for this past month’s theme, and keep using it as I pick what to play next. I’ve been a little weak in adding some bundled games to my backlog, but I managed to still keep it balanced. At least that’s something. I hope you all had a good start of the year and that february brings more good stuff your way.
| Played | Finished | Completed | Backlog+ | Achievements |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 223 |
ABC Challenge Progress (23/26)
Finished this month: 1 (Finally!)Most Satisfying Finish
Most Exciting Addition
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Cat Quest
12 hours playtime
6 of 12 achievements
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Life is Strange: Before the Storm
9 hours playtime
34 of 34 achievements
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Monster Prom
15 hours playtime
10 of 32 achievements
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MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD
261 hours playtime
44 of 50 achievements
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Slay the Spire
170 hours playtime
24 of 43 achievements
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AER Memories of Old
6 hours playtime
20 of 20 achievements
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Valley
9 hours playtime
23 of 30 achievements
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Slime Rancher
34 hours playtime
53 of 57 achievements
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My Time At Portia
29 hours playtime
14 of 91 achievements
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Stories: The Path of Destinies
20 hours playtime
no achievements
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Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas
8 hours playtime
26 of 63 achievements
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The Blackwell Legacy
2 hours playtime
8 of 8 achievements
Cat Quest
12 hours playtime, 6 of 12 achievements
The first game I played this year was such a great one. Time will tell but I can see it make it to my 2019 favourites. In this super cute, cat pun filled RPG, you are trying to save your sister from the paws of the evil baddie who catnapped her in front of your eyes. It's not too hard, but still really enjoyable, and I strongly recommend you give it a try.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm
9 hours playtime, 34 of 34 achievements
I finally got around to play this Life is Strange prequel as it was one of my picks for January's Play or Pay. I still have mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, I did enjoy it, maybe because I was expecting it to be so much worse. Still a bit too emo, but at least there is no Max, and Chloe is still a bit annoying but not as much as she got on my nerves initially. On the plus side, it provides an enjoyable backstory to the Chloe/Rachel relationship which I always felt the original game was lacking. In summary, it's an okay but forgettable prequel to Life is Strange.
AER Memories of Old
5 hours playtime, 20 of 20 achievements
I was pleasantly surprised by this game. It's an exploration game with light puzzle solving/plateforming sequences, with the most enjoyable part of the game being that you have the ability to turn into a bird and fly around from one piece of the world to the other. It reminded me a bit of Copoka gameplay wise, and make me realise how much I liked that experience. I wish there were more games like that were I could fly around discovering a game world. Really nice and worth your time if you like eploring.
Valley
9 hours playtime, 23 of 30 achievements
Another exploration game filled with puzzles, Valley was another one of my picks for January's PoP. I enjoyed the experience and the story, and the world was really beautiful. I might go back to it in the future has there is things that remain to be found even tho I finished the main story. Not sure if I'll have the patience to collect everything, but I might try just because taking a hike through this world was a great experience.
Slime Rancher
34 hours playtime, 53 of 57 achievements
One of my big time eater this month, and the first game that was added to my backlog in 2019. I started playing it to try and scratch that itch that was making me want to cave in and get My time at Portia but it ended up being such a relaxing experience on its own. I ended up playing well after the storyline had ended (which is really irrelevant in those kind of game anyway), and enjoyed every minute of it. I might revisit it in the future to try the time trial mode, or just for the pleasure to hoard slime plorts. Great game, strongly recommended.
I FINALLY got around to get back to the ABC list, and played this game that had been neglected for way too long. It was a really cool experience and I greatly enjoyed it, even though I think getting the 2 last cheevos was a little too grindy (nobody forced me though, it was more a situation of "I've already grinded THAT much, I don't want to drop it before actually getting those cheevos"), the general experience with this game was positive for me. Making progress again on the ABC list is really satisfying by the way.
The Blackwell Legacy
2 hours playtime, 8 of 8 achievements
My short pick for February's PoP (we started a bit in advance, which is convenient as I'm gonna be travelling the upcoming week). It was short indeed, but a really good. It's the first in the Blackwell series, which I guess serves more as an introduction for the main characters and the game mecanics, but it's a great one. I ended up playing with the dev's commentaries activated and it was really interesting to see him look back at his game design choices (and admit when they were wrong). It made me wanna play more of this series, strong recommendation to PnC lovers.
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Slime Rancher
34 hours playtime
53 of 57 achievements
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The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II
0 minutes playtime
0 of 51 achievements
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My Time At Portia
29 hours playtime
14 of 91 achievements
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Lost Grimoires 3: The Forgotten Well
0 minutes playtime
0 of 13 achievements
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Noir Chronicles: City of Crime
0 minutes playtime
0 of 20 achievements
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The Shrouded Isle
0 minutes playtime
0 of 16 achievements
Get started on that Ghost of a Tale already!
Yes, ‘mam! I’ll try to get at it this month.
Glad to see you liked AER, I’ve been surprised by the number of people who only found it mediocre or didn’t like it. Copoka is on my wishlist, and I agree that there should be more games, I was really fun just flying around, exploring, and taking in the view.
Regarding LIS though, out of curiosity what didn’t you like about Max? I agree that the prequel was a bit too emo, but I loved the original.
I have to admit I spent a good chunk of time just flying around in AER before even trying to figure what you had to actually do to advance the story. Copoka is shorter but I liked it a lot!
Don’t get me wrong, I loved the original LiS, while weirdly not liking most of the characters. I know it sounds weird. I just found Max (and chloe even more) annoyingly emo/angsty/hipstery teens. But I loved the game.
I checked out AER about a few weeks ago, after I read in some gaming site that the dev was closing down. In the end, I didn’t buy it because I got scared off by some review saying something about bad controls. Maybe I’ll check it out again later. The game doesn’t seem to be too long. For now, Steep is fulfilling my need for a chill (pun intended) exploration game.
Your screens make me wanna buy Steep “again” and then I remembered i didn’t get it because it was online only? Is it still a thing or is it possible to play it solo without dealing with other players?
And yes, the devs of AER closed down recently :sad:
I bought Steep after I read that offline mode was added. Well, sort of an offline mode. I think if you don’t have internet (physically turn off the router or disable in Windows), you just go into free roam mode without challenges. Haven’t tested it yet. Aside from being disconnected once, I never had any problem online and I’ve never had to deal with other players. To be honest, don’t even know how multiplayer works.
That sounds great and I saw it’s currently pretty cheap on steam because of the lunar sale, I might get it. Thanks for the feedback.
I just tested the offline mode (actually, I was forced to “test” it because I got disconnected). If you play solo, it seems that the only thing that’s different is you can’t do the challenges. You’ll still have access to whatever stuff you’ve already bought, places you’ve already unlocked, etc. If you exit the game while you’re on offline mode, you’ll continue from that exact spot when you restart online.
Thanks for the complementary feedback, I’m just back home and i’ll look into it before the sale ends. At least that sounds great that you don’t have to interact with other people if you don’t want to.
Jumped into it, and I don’t regret getting it! Would you mind telling me how you’re taking those cool screenshots without any game hub on them?
You can go to photo mode by pressing L3+R3. It’s hard to go into photo mode in real time when you’re going fast or doing tricks so I suggest that you use it during replays. After you finish a ride, you can go to mountain view to watch a replay of your ride.
I hadn’t even figured you could replay your ride :facepalm: And thanks for the help.
Just a quick note about Blackwell dev commentaries: there’s one instance in the last game (Blackwell Epiphany), where the dev spoils the story just before the actual events take place. Didn’t ruin the game for me, but surely left a bad taste in my mouth. So you might want to turn the commentaries off for the last one.
Thank you for the warning, I’ll keep it in mind. It’s indeed an annoying thing they could have easily avoided.
In their defense, they say multiple times to only listen to the commentary after you’ve already beaten the game once. While that then results in you unable to 100% clear the game in one go, it’s worth it. You don’t get spoiled, and the devs get to talk about what they want to talk about when they want to talk about it.
The commentary is one of my favorite things about Wadjet Eye games, even middling ones I didn’t super care for.
The thing with that is I don’t necessarily want to play the same PnC game twice in a row, but I’m most interested by the commentary while playing/immediately after, not months/weeks later. I’d be also good with a video feature where i wouldn’t have to actually play the game again while listening to the commentary, I just don’t wanna have to go through the process of solving the exact same puzzles twice in a row. (And I don’t wanna skip on the commentary either, as like you said, they’re really interesting). It’s just so easy to make it so the trigger for the commentary happens AFTER whatever it spoils.
That’s true… but if they want to talk about the set up/lead in/foreshadowing of a big twist or event (which are often real big factors in big events), they gotta do that before.
I get it, it’s not perfect. I just take it as an excuse to play it again a year or so down the line.
You have a point, if it’s to talk about the foreshadowing, it’s unvoidable to spoil a little.