May’s Stats
aka. Where the backlog gets purged
May is coming to an end, and with it my first year as a backlog assassin. I’d like to start this post by thanking you all fellow assassins for making this community what it is. I wouldn’t have done so good without the motivation this group brought me.
Anyway. Inspired by a few fellow assassins, I finally purged my backlog and removed 42 games from my steam account that I would never have played (a scar from when I was activating every bundle crap I was buying), as well as moved a few more to the “won’t play” list (those I can’t remove, either because they came as a pack with other games I actually wanna play, or for one of them because I won a DLC on SG for it, and I’m not sure how it works if I remove it). It might seem ridiculous to some people to remove games from your steam account, but it felt so good and liberating to get rid of that crap.
After this, I allowed myself to activate a few keys for games I wanted that I had laying around from different bundles/trades.
How have May been for you guys? I’ve seen that some of you did accomplish a lot, any favorite for what you played this month?
| Played | Finished | Completed | Backlog+ | Achievements |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 8 | 4 | -36 (20 - 46 ) | 167 |
Most Satisfying Finish
Most Exciting Addition
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Fallout Shelter
35 hours playtime
25 of 35 achievements
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The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
17 hours playtime
30 of 41 achievements
-
Shardlight
7 hours playtime
18 of 19 achievements
-
Botanicula
6 hours playtime
53 of 53 achievements
-
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
8 hours playtime
10 of 17 achievements
-
Remember Me
16 hours playtime
35 of 50 achievements
-
Guild of Dungeoneering
62 hours playtime
49 of 49 achievements
-
CrossCells
5 hours playtime
10 of 10 achievements
-
NORTH
55 minutes playtime
no achievements
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
17 hours playtime, 30 of 41 achievements
Started this one last month as part of the challenge Narayan picked for me. I couldn't finish it in time, but kept playing into early May. I went into this game with very low expectations. I had read, here and there, that this game was bad, nothing like the Xcom series (obviously, it's a TPS not a tactics game), and the mixed reviews on steam seemed to go in this direction too. However, probably because of those low starting expectations, I quite enjoyed the game. Sure, if it's the only TPS you're gonna ever play, I wouldn't recommend this one, but it's not all that bad either. Even though the mecanics and the game design are far from perfect, I liked the idea of a prequel to the Xcom series that explained the first encounter with the aliens in the 60s.
Shardlight
7 hours playtime, 18 of 19 achievements
The game was really great. This post-apocalyptic Point & Click from Wadget Eye studios (Blackwell series, Technobabylon, Gemini rue...) didn't disappoint me. Even though the original resolution is very low, the art is really pretty (still a nodge under something like Kathy Rain, but definitely on the high side). The voice acting is great, the characters are interesting and so is the story. No moon logic puzzle, thank you. I won't go into the story details as I want to keep this spoiler free, but I recommend if you're a P&C lover, especially if post-apo is your jam :3
Botanicula
6 hours playtime, 53 of 53 achievements
In a post earlier this month, Joe asked for a repeat of the challenge we had last month. I replied and we ended up picking games for each other to play. One of the games he picked for me was Botanicula, and I'm so glad he did. I had started it a long time ago (2012 if I believe the achievements) but probably got distracted and never finished it. I started all over and boy was it a nice experience! I had forgotten how super extremely cute this game was, both in the graphics and in the sounds. Playing it just made me so happy to walk around and discover all the secrets... If it's sitting in your library and you haven't played it, give it a try.
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
8 hours playtime, 10 of 17 achievements
For yet another challenge I took part in (did I say I join way too many of those?), I got this game picked for me. For some reason, I had a fake conception of what the game was before going in, so I would most likely not have picked it up myself, but it turned out to be a great metroidvania where you control a small spaceship through a labyrinth in the depths of a planet. Not only the game was a lot of fun, but I loved the design with the contrast of black shapes againsts bright colors. Definitely a good one :)
Guild of Dungeoneering
62 hours playtime, 49 of 49 achievements
Everything was going swell and THEN I made a mistake. I reinstalled Guild of Dungeoneering. Oh. Boy. Look at that hours count (well ok to be honest, 10 hours had been put into it previously when I bought the game, and some of the remaining 52 hours were idled while I was working in parallel, but still). On the plus side, I managed to 100% the game. I started a new game and grinded until I could loose to the rubber ducky, then started a fresh save and went for the "no death" run along with all the other cheevos. This game is fun as hell, but the RNG can sometimes become a bit infuriating. Other than that, I regret none of the hours spent playing this, even if it kept me from completing way more games this month.
CrossCells
5 hours playtime, 10 of 10 achievements
I was lucky enough to win CrossCells that released just a few days ago. This is the new game by the dev of Hexcells, which made it to my favorites of 2016 list, so I was more than excited to play it. The game's a mix between the original hexcells meet sudoku if you will, so as someone who enjoy both, I should have been happy. Well I'm only half convinced by this new one. First, the game was too easy compared to Hexcells infinite. On the other hand, the only difficulty I really felt was for level 20-25 as the new mecanic to solve them is only explained in level 26. And then there was a level where multiple solutions were possible yet only one was counted as valid, so it was a bit of a guess to find which one the game considered correct. That being said, the dev seems reactive and those 2 problems were apparently patched after people complained on the forum, (but I already had finished the game so I didn't go and replay it.)
Remember Me
16 hours playtime, 35 of 50 achievements
I had been wanting to play this first game by DontNod (the studio who made Life is Strange) for a long time, but I had heard mixed echoes about it. When it got picked for me in a challenge, it was the perfect occasion to finally made my own mind about it. Overall, the game was good. The design was gorgeous and the story was interesting. There was only 2 criticisms I have towards this game. The first one, even though it'll only concern people who like to hunt collectibles, comes from the fact the game very frequently lock the path behind you, making you easily miss collectibles because you chose the "correct" path first, even if you had no way to know it was gonna lock you out. And because of the nature of problem 2, even reloading the chapters later is making pick those collectibles extremely painful. Speaking of problem 2, which was the most frustrating for me, is that the game is EXTREMELY linear. Like... a narrow corridor you follow from start to finish. Not only the gorgeous design makes you wanna wander through Neo Paris but the game won't let you, but more frustrating, if there is 2 ledges, A and B, in all aspect identicals, but for the game you're supposed to jump and grab ledge A (an orange arrow will indicate you that), if you go for ledge B, which should lead to the same result, the character will refuse to grab it and rather plummet to her death... Thankfully the story kept me hooked all the way so I could disregard those defaults and enjoy the game.
NORTH
1 hour playtime, no achievements
After reading malabagaa's report the other day, I decided I should give a try to NORTH, since it looked short and I've always been intrigued by the premise of the game. It's hard for me to say if it's good or not. I mean technically it's pretty poor and gameplay wise there is not much to do, but I think it DOES carry the message pretty well. The game is dark and confusing, and weirdly, it serves the theme. I'd say since it's so short, you should take an hour of your time and try it. It might not be a great game, but it might make you think about some very actual problems if nothing else.
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Copoka
0 minute playtime
0 of 12 achievements
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Manual Samuel
0 minutes playtime
0 of 28 achievements
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Dungeons 2
0 minutes playtime
0 of 25 achievements
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Toren
0 minutes playtime
0 of 12 achievements
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Alan Wake
1 minute playtime
0 of 67 achievements
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Alan Wake's American Nightmare
0 minutes playtime
0 of 12 achievements
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Stellaris
0 minutes playtime
0 of 65 achievements
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Thimbleweed Park
0 minutes playtime
0 of 33 achievements
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Californium
0 minutes playtime
0 of 8 achievements
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Dead Cells
0 minutes playtime
no achievements
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Owlboy
0 minutes playtime
0 of 12 achievements
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Ghost Files: The Face of Guilt
0 minutes playtime
0 of 22 achievements
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Valhalla Hills
0 minutes playtime
0 of 26 achievements
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CrossCells
5 hours playtime
10 of 10 achievements
-
The Turing Test
0 minutes playtime
0 of 15 achievements
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Faces of Illusion: The Twin Phantoms
0 minutes playtime
0 of 13 achievements
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The Temporal Invasion
0 minutes playtime
0 of 13 achievements
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Adam Wolfe
0 minutes playtime
0 of 27 achievements
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Fate Tectonics
0 minutes playtime
0 of 54 achievements
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Small Radios Big Televisions
0 minutes playtime
0 of 9 achievements
sheepsheepsheep. Pretty report. You should post more screenshots on Steam!
Shardlight is a game that I keep wanting to play but never do. I actually bought it before it was bundled >.>.
Great job on GoD.. 62 hours to 100% is spectacular.
Thanks :3 I always take a lot more screenshots but I’m scared to bother people on my flist by posting too many. I’ll try to remember and post more ;)
Shardlight was bundled? Anyway, still really good, go for it!!
GoD’s hardest achievement was to complete the game without loosing a single dungeoneer. I guess it’s why it took me so long, damn RNG. As I was playing while doing work stuff on the side, it took maybe longer than it should have but it never got boring at least.
Oh, no it wasn’t bundled >.>. My mistake.
It was 75% in April so that’s when I saw a lot of people get it.
Oh, it’s around the time I won it, I would have bought it if I hadn’t been lucky ;)
Where else are you winning games? :P I really need to figure out where I can win The Long Journey Home… it is my current if I could buy videos I would be buying it right now game (but I can’t due to my self imposed can’t spend money on video games this year…). :D
Do you mean the “Gifts and other wins” category? It’s mostly gifts from friends, giveaways from devs or from a french forum where we do have a small SG like system, but just for people from that forum. No The long journey home to be seen though, sorry :p
I instantly added it to my WL when I heard about it (I mean, I’m so in need for a good FTL like) but then reading the first reviews cooled me down instantly and I removed it soon after. It seemed that it’s not that good, and for 40€ I expect something to be at least good. The disappointment.
Yes, that is what I meant. No worries!
Yeah I did a bit more research myself and I think it is a bit of a disappointment. I do want to try it eventually though, but not at that price. In somewhat related news did you see Into the Breach? It has teaser stuff from the creators of FTL, it looks pretty good from what they have shown. Easy link for you: Steam Store
Same here, i’ll wait that it drops price to make my own opinion. OMG thanks for the link, I’m following it now, I didn’t hear of it <3
Out of those I’ve played NORTH and a bit of Guild of Dungeoneering. I found the latter fun only for a few hours, the repetitiveness and the RNG quickly got to me.
As for NORTH I thought the same,even though it sounds like a way to excuse the poor gameplay I think you can say with a straight face it actually enhances the message the game tries to convey.
I think I should remove bundle trash myself, for now I removed all those “free licenses” that you used to be able to add with a script, my game count on BLAEO went down by over 400 :p
For GoD, I guess I didn’t play doing only that so it didn’t get that repetitive. I even got the DLC on sale, the whole Ice cream scenarios were pretty funny.
I really agree for NORTH. It’s the only game that I think the poor gameplay actually serves the purpose even though i’m not sure it was their intent. People play worse and longer games than that just for cheevos, at least that one has a message behind.
I recommend the library purge, for real. I know many people in the circles you frequent would recommend against it, because cards and account enlargement syndrome, but it feels so liberating do finally look at your steam library and only see things you actually wanna play.
I just finished NORTH as well and I’m still confused. I didn’t enjoy my time with it. It’s awful tbh.
Anyway, congrats on killing your backlog! :)
Thanks. I don’t think NORTH is supposed to be enjoyable though, it’s not that kind of game. And yes, it’s kind of awful, but as I was discussing with the cat in the comment just up yours, it is to me the one time awful gameplay enhance the message of the game.
I totally agree with Botanicula being super awesome cute.
From the moment I started it up it reminded me of some childhood cartoon shows. The ones that express themselves not through words but sounds instead.
Absolutely lovely gem.
And those sounds were so soothing too <3
I’m glad you liked Botanicula, it’s definitely a fantastic game. Also congratulations on backlog purging. Don’t mind those people who keep saying “you can hide the games in your library, why delete” and its endless variants. Deleting games you will NEVER play feels awesome :)
Thank you :3 I don’t get why people get infuriated about other people removing games from their account. I even got a blacklist from posting into stef’s thread about it on SG (I only posted there that day, so the blacklist has to come from there… go figure >_<). To be honest I was even disappointed for those games I had to keep and move to won’t play, I would rather remove them but they’re linked to other stuff I wanna keep.
Because people need to get over themselves and focus on their own lives instead of others’.
Everytime I organise my backlog (deleting games is also included), I feel much better like there is one less task to worry about.
So, it’s been a year for you, hm? Nice, congrats on your little assassination anniversary! ;D It’s going to be a year for me soon, too :)
And another big congrats on your progress and your library purging/sorting. Might actually get some games removed from my library as well, thanks for the inspiration! For me, may was a month where I decided to play only RPGMaker games. It didn’t go so well because I didn’t realize how hit-or-miss this subgenre is - some of the games were awesome and I loved them, some others were terrible, boring and/or broken. But I did finish several of them, so it wasn’t completely unsuccessfull :)
Thank you, and early congrats to you too :3
You’re welcome, I got the inspiration myself from other assassins, so I’m glad to spread. I really recommend it, it feels really good. Sorry to read you came across bad games during your RPG May-ker month. I liked to read some of your report on them though, since as you said, with those it can be a hit-or-miss but some of those are hidden gems. Still congrats on the progress ;)
Thank you, thank you :)
Stay tuned, I’ll post another update wrapping my monthly theme up one of these days ;D
Will do ;)
Did you give up on the remaining achievements for ITSP or are you still eager to give them a try?
I didn’t give up, but I don’t really care either if I don’t get them. Though, playing with you is a different story, I’d love to give it a try if we manage to synchronize ;) Sadly I won’t be around this week end as I’ve been designated volunteer for some unexpected babysitting of my nieces the whole week end AT THEIR PLACE ;___; (so pretty much no gaming or maybe a bit on the laptop if I manage to catch a break).
A designated volunteer ^^ Well, congratulations to your commitment. Going by my nephews which I see rarely I can imagine this getting pretty exhausting. Game is not running away. I will probably see it if you have the time to fly an ufo around.
Other than that, have fun Aunty Sheep :p
Yeah you know, that kind of situation where they tell you “oh but you can say no if you really can’t…” but the end of the sentence is “but if you don’t come you’ll ruin everybody’s weekend even though it’s not your fault in the first place”. I love my nieces but I have to babysit quite a lot these days because of temporary circumstances, and between that and stuffing work all in between, it ends up being very long days. At least it reminds me why I don’t want kids of my own -___-
No pressure though ^^ Well, let’s hope it gets better again so that the nights get longer again instead of the days. And take comfort in you being a good sister.
That’s what I try to tell myself, in between 2 moments of feeling like an idiot for having said yes.
What a nice looking update, Ms. Sheep! =)
Botanicula was such a joy to play; I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Remember Me is one of my favorite games, and I don’t often play games like it. The linearity didn’t bother me, but I know it bothers lots of people. And the inability to backtrack IS annoying. I ended up restarting a chapter or two, and toward the end, when I didn’t want to have to restart, I checked a collectibles video before I left an area to make sure I didn’t miss any. Turns out I ended up playing a second playthrough (to get 100%) so maybe I didn’t need to do that.
Well thank you :3
For remember me, I think it only bothered me so much because I played mostly open world games recently (I mean when it comes to those AAA). I didn’t wanna play with a video but now I regret I didn’t cuz I’m missing some collectibles and I’m really so lazy to go back, but I probably will. Loved the story and the remix sequences though. Good game.
Awesome post Sheep! :3
From your list I only played Botanicula and Remember Me… The first one is the cutiest game I ever played. Loved it :3 And the second, well, I don’t remember much about it, but I do remember that I liked it, even though the combat seemed a bit weird at first, but it got better eventually. Story and the futuristic setting were also pretty cool.
Don’t mind those people caring about you deleting games..pff, what’s the point of having them if we’ll never play them O.o - I did the same and deleted a lot of games months ago. I managed to reduce to a bit more than 200 from almost 300 games I had lol (deleted even games I played, but just didn’t want them in my library ‘cause, well, they didn’t deserve to be there). It’s a good feeling when we realize we have only games we wanna play :D
Anyways, June is here already. I’m sure it’ll be a month full of assassinations \o have fun gaming and wish you a grea day :3
Thank you :3 It’s nice to see you back around here :D
Amanita games are so cute in general, but botanicula really tops them all <3 The combats in Remember me reminded me a bit of the Arkham games, but more customisable. The story and the game design were definitely really good.
It’s definitely relieving to declutter your steam account, I really value quality over quantity and I was kinda depressed to look at the list and see those garbage games. Now when I look at it, there’s only stuff I wanna play :D
Have fun gaming you too, and I hope to read an update from you again soon ;) o/
Oh, I thought no one would notice :p yea, I was away for like 3 months O.o - I had great plans to make my post when I finished Doom and few more games, but I kept delaying :x anyways, it’s nice to be here :3
I didn’t play all Amanita games (still missing Samorost (all of them)), but between Machinarium and Botanicula, yea, Botanicula gets the first place :3 it’s just too cute >.<
I felt the same about my library and that’s why I decided to remove a lot of free games I got only to farm their cards. I’m in the same situation as you about some games that I wish I could delete but they are part of a pack. But well, at least 99% of my games are games I wanna keep in my library \o/
Thank you :D and I think I’ll make a post any time soon to say that I’m still alive and what I did these 3 months nothing hahah I’m pretty sure that my backlog just increased :p
We’ll need graphics and statistics and all that stuff :p And of course silly that some of us noticed :p
A lot of great games played, especially that Botanicula :P I think that’s going to be my go-to recommendation now, seems like everyone enjoys it! I’ve ended Guild of Dungeoneering to my wishlist, it does look like fun, and wow by those hours played it looks like it has good value to it too.
So… I’m a bit behind on my games played and I don’t have the excuse of having another challenge on-going. I’ve had big issues getting Bioshock 2 to run, crashes to desktop after 30 minutes and losing progress is less than ideal, thankfully it doesn’t appear I’m alone in struggling to play it so I’ll look into some fixes, sadly it has put me off playing for the time being. I really need to write up a monthly report as the others were a lot of fun, I’ve almost finished Sang-Froid, the final day is just horrible!
That’s a great idea, the game really made me happy while playing it and I was so glad you made me go back to it. More people should give it a try :3
For GoD, some people found it repetitive but I really had fun with short sessions in between other tasks. It did end up being great value for me indeed.
Don’t stress it, I only finished one of the games you picked for me but I intend to actually try all of them. (I made myself a list for those games that I get challenge for and don’t necessarily finish in time). Sorry about Bioshock, was it the remaster that gave you trouble? And I’m glad you liked Sang Froid :3
It was the original version of Bioshock 2 which I ironically chose because I thought it would perform better lol… it’s a bit odd as the first game crashed I think once in the 16 hours I played it. There’s no need to be sorry though, I know you picked a really good game :)
Wooo finished them all! Bioshock 2 was a bit of a stumbling block but that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, I really did, just found it hard to play more than a level at a time. I’ll post a BLAEO update later, I saw you had liked a couple of my screenshots thank you :)
Nice! Congrats :) (Do you have the DLCs? if so i recommend playing minerva’s den)
Your screens were really cool, I had forgotten you were playing it because of our challenge :3
Thanks :) Yeah I played Minerva’s Den shortly after finishing, that definitely had the best story, or at least the one that gave me the most feels… and it was cool to not worry about upgrade stations as there were upgraded weapons lying around, I must admit however that I was a bit fatigued by the gameplay by this point though! Lol it was a while ago now so I’ll forgive you :P
Minerva’s den really goes in my “All time favorite” DLC list. I think the writing was even better than the main game tbh. And I agree the gameplay is not the best but now you’ve played a classic ;)
Adam Wolfe? Ah man, for some reason, I sooooo wanna play this. I don’t know why really, I just stumbled over it on sg and had a look on steam at it and since then it’s stuck.
Ok, got distracted for a moment. Just have to gather my thoughts again.
Right. Remember Me. I liked the game. But I never had the problem with straying from the path. At least as far as I remember :D
It’s been a while so I might not remember it to well, even if the name wants something different. BUT I do remember it, mostly the rewinding scenes. I kinda liked them the most :] :D
My month was so far pretty good I think. Got a few games done. So that’s nice. Although I mostly tried to get the games done I was challenged the month before to do. So yeah :D
Favorites this month. Mmmmmh. I liked The Raven. But Papers, Please is “haunting” me more, guess because I could have played it in endless mode, but just refused to even try that. It was a funny game. But no, I’m not going to re-install it. I decided to remember it as a story game and not get a trauma from the endless mode. So, gonna get rid of that ghost :D
Have a great next month and to another successful year as Assassin!
Happy backlog killing!
I know right? I had the same attraction to Adam Wolfe after I first saw it. I didn’t manage to win a copy of it but I bought it for cheap from a friend who had it from a bundle. I can’t wait to play it, it’s probably gonna be my next HoG (ie, my first go at the monthly theme, I’m excited :D)
For remember me, I guess after playing a few openworld games it struck me much more than it would had back when the game got out. It was great though and the remixing scenes were my favorite!
Man, I’ve been trying to get my hand on a copy of the Raven through trading, but no luck yet. I reaaally wanna give it a try after I read yours and another assassin’s impressions.
Oh and GLORY TO ARSTOTZKA! I really liked Papers please, even though it’s typically the kind of game that is not fun per se, but still very compelling. Kind of like This War of Mine. If you liked PP, I recommend giving a try to Beholder if you can put your hands on it ;)
Have a great month too!!