December 2021 Progress Jump to next post
Finished games:
An adventure game with emphasis on narrative. It is based on a Skyrim mod of the same name and inherits some of Skyrim’s features and quirks, but is now a complete, standalone game with its own assets and also additional content, improvements and polish. I’ve never played the original mod version, but I did hear that it got a lot of praise.
+++ Excellent writing and story with many twists and fleshed-out characters.
++ Well-designed puzzles. I had no problem solving them on my own by staying patient and exploring as much as possible, and the in-game task-list prevents you from being lost as you’ll always know what still needs to be solved and done.
++ Impressive voice-acting. How’d they manage to find such great voice actors??
+ Respects your time when it comes to chores. Once you figure out certain tasks, you won’t have to do them again and again on each loop as the game will give you a way to skip them.
+ Good visuals (that can be captured with the game’s own photo mode)
● The combat feels tacked on, and the ability to kick enemies away makes it trivial, but it’s serviceable. I’m guessing they kept it from the Skyrim mod. Fortunately, the combat is used in only one segment (which is optional at that, if I recall correctly?).
- The game crashed or freezed a few times on me when loading saves.
- It doesn’t seem well-optimized. On a GTX 1660 Super with max settings 1080p/60fps, the game would nearly max out my GPU, regardless of whether I’m walking around the city or talking to someone without much happening in background.
- Some characters clip through their own clothing.
This is a fantastic game - I heavily recommend it if you like unraveling mysteries or just like history or philosophy. I would also recommend going in blind. I’m excited to see what Modern Storyteller does next as this is a great game to debut with.
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Baba Is You
10 hours playtime
no achievements
★★★★★☆
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Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon
3 hours playtime
no achievements
★★★★☆☆
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Hades
76 hours playtime
43 of 49 achievements
★★★★★★
GAME
PASS -
This Is the Police 2
~22 hours playtime
no achievements
★★★★☆☆
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Wolfenstein: The Old Blood
8.1 hours playtime
no achievements
★★★★☆☆
GAME
PASS
Unfinished games:
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A Way Out
2 hours playtime
no achievements
GAME
PASS -
Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling
4.3 hours playtime
2 of 30 achievements
GAME
PASS -
Dicey Dungeons
13 hours playtime
16 of 53 achievements
GAME
PASS -
Kirby: Planet Robobot
5 hours playtime
no achievements
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SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated
- I started playing A Way Out with my friend a couple days ago and so far we’re having a blast! I’m also surprised at how well the game works with poor network quality - the weak connection icon shows at all times but we haven’t experienced any lag yet.
- I didn’t play Bug Fables for long, but my first impressions are very good so far, and it feels like a proper successor to the first 2 Paper Mario games.
- Still going through Dicey Dungeons. Managed to complete first 3 episodes with each character so far.
- I received SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom as a Stealthy Santa gift from Cece09 (thanks again :D). I used to watch the show back in the day so it was nice to return to it by playing this game. I’ve never played the original so I don’t know how the remaster compares to it, but the visuals look nice and the gameplay seems good (though I wish you could move a bit faster). What I didn’t like is that some voice lines get repeated A LOT so it gets annoying after a while. Still, I’m looking forward to seeing more of this game.
Current progress
does not include games from the "won't play" list and non-Steam backlogs
Progress 1 year ago
Notes
Another year of backlog fighting completed. This year my Steam backlog didn’t get as much progress as before, mainly because I spent a lot of time playing games from Xbox Game Pass and also on the 3DS, but at least my wishlist grew smaller thanks to it. This will continue for this year as my XGP sub ends mid-January 2023 and I want to play all of the games I’m interested in before my sub ends or they get removed from XGP entirely (currently there are ~30 games left, but that number will most likely increase as new games are added to XGP each month). I will also try to complete the 3DS backlog this year (10 games left currently) so I can pass the console to its next owner and make room for the Steam Deck (assuming I can get it this year… but I’m not 100% sure of it). I’ll also continue limiting my game purchases to a minimum because of Game Pass.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading and have a great year! :D
Great assassinations! Can you recommend This is the Police II ?
Good luck with the Game Pass and 3DS backlog! Make sure to let us know how your battle against those backlogs fare. Man, I’m going to be so jelaous of all of you with your Steam Deck once it arrives :D
Have a great year yourself!
Thank you! I’d say This is the Police 2 is worth a try. The story is quite good and the game doesn’t drag on as much as the first game (though some dialogues in cutscenes are way longer than they should’ve been), and the XCOM-like tactical missions are a nice addition. Definitely an improvement over the first game.
Also my Game Pass and 3DS backlogs can be viewed on my profile, in the “Non-Steam backlogs” tab. Though I should probably add all of the games I still haven’t played to the Game Pass list…
I still have no idea whether that Steam Deck will arrive this year, but let’s hope so! I’ll post a review of it on BLAEO for sure.
I haven’t played a XCOM-like tactical game in quite some time, hmm…
I did not know about your other backlogs, just had a look at them. Very neatly organized and I can see that you have quite the progress with most of them as well. Yeah, let’s see about Steam Deck. I hope it’s as great as it sounds and am looking forward to your review.
Impressive progress! I’d love to get xbox game pass for a few months but since my Steam backlog is still going in the wrong direction I haven’t gotten around to it.
Yeah you’re right, XGP doesn’t really have a good influence on my Steam backlog either… but I don’t think I’d finish the Steam backlog anytime soon either. Might as well get XGP over with now.
That’s true, but at least yours is moving in the right direction.
Oh that’s because I kept my game purchases to a minimum and I’m pretty sure I also moved some of the games from never played to won’t play in 2021… if I didn’t do both of these then I’m sure my Steam backlog would be actually getting worse. XGP also helps keep my wishlist numbers down… which in turn means less game purchases and less games added to the backlog.