Progress Report #21: January 2025
Monthly tally - Backlog: 29, Yekhus: 2
Total play time: 20.0h
My collection has passed the 2k bar. I really need to get on top of it. And let's face it: it won't be done by spending more time playing. What I need to do is spend some of my gaming time finding, trying and scratching off the shittiest stuff I have in there, of which there has to be plenty. Discards are my only hope.
Completed or Beaten (2)
Thank you Samwise, for The Last Campfire! It was a relatively light game, much more casual than I'm used to, so was surprised by how much I got into it. I had a headstart when I played the demo a while back. But as soon as I picked it up, really got in the flow of playing it in little gaps I had in the evenings to relax and unwind.
Same with Flower, very relaxing casual stuff, to play at the end of the day. I guess it's really what I needed in what was otherwise a busy month, juggling demanding work with a bunch of other responsibilities. That said, while a single playthrough was ok, the control scheme felt a bit too frustrating, and the very limited variety of exploration and discovery made it too repetitive. This mix would not motivate me the slightest to replay it or chase achievements.
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The Last Campfire
5.5 hours playtime
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Flower
4.9 hours playtime
Also Played (3)
Super Meat Boy Forever is driving me nuts. Granted, it's supposed to be a hardcore, challenging game. But I managed to advance through it all at a pretty a steady pace. Until I reached what I think is the last boss (although my paranoia tells me to be ready to expect otherwise), and then I got completely stuck. The sudden spike in difficulty seems like bad game design. I've tried it a bunch of times over several short sessions, and it's a really tough grind (and pretty frustrating, and boring, I'd say). My will and patience are up for it, but it feels stupid and a waste of time to keep trying with no real enjoyment. I'm very tempted to just give up on beating the thing, but it really pains me, so close to the end, so haven't pulled the trigger just yet.
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Super Meat Boy Forever
4 hours playtime
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Oaken
2.3 hours playtime
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SNK 40th Anniversary Collection
5.0 hours playtime
No achievements (not on Steam)
Added to collection (Steam) (5)
- ABI-DOS (free)
- The Last Campfire (SG giveaway)
- Mini Thief (freebie)
- Merk Mayhem (free)
- Towaga: Among Shadows (free)
Added to collection (GOG) (3)
- Vambrace: Cold Soul (freebie)
- SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech (pass)
- GRIP: Combat Racing (pass)
Added to collection (Epic) (9)
- Sifu (freebie)
- Hell Let Loose (freebie)
- Eastern Exorcist (pass)
- Skydrift Infinity (pass)
- Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader (pass)
- Star Stuff (pass)
- To The Rescue! (pass)
- Zombie Army 4: Dead War (pass)
- Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights (pass)
Added to collection (Other) (12)
- Spirit Mancer (pass)
- Land It Rocket (freebie)
- SuperTuxKart (free)
- Xonotic (free)
- OpenRA (free)
- Freedoom (free)
- Battle for Wesnoth (free)
- Widelands (free)
- Luanti (free)
- Unvanquished (free)
- Warzone 2100 (free)
- Spitlings (pass)
You got further than I did on Super Meat Boy Forever. I quit on the world 2 boss after it became clear that 1) its attack warning is shorter than the time it takes your character to jump high enough to avoid one of its attack possibilities, so it’s really just trial and error whether you actually avoid getting hit, and 2) despite being a one-hit-death game, you don’t get checkpoints between boss phases, meaning you have to do all that trial and error again and just get lucky 9+ times in a row to win.
So yeah, I don’t blame you stop playing that game. I know it can be disappointing to give up so close to the end, but sometimes, that’s the best choice.
I understand you completely. I did hit a wall on that 2nd boss. But after some first texploration and testing, I did find the patterns and strategies, and then it was a matter of repeating to get that perfect single-run execution, so fairly straightforward and quick. Just needed a bit of perseveration. I had similar cycles in most bosses and even a couple of tougher levels/obstacle types. But then this last boss is something else.
Thanks for your words! They make me feel better and lees like a wimp about my likely decision to give it up. :-)