September’s Stats
aka. Busy real life makes bad progress
Hey guys, how have you all been doing? September came and went, and here I am writing another update. I’ve been away for the whole past week and I feel a bit disconnected, so I’ll try to say as consistent as I can, but forgive me it if gets a bit scattered. At least I got some gaming done during the first part of the month, and some really good ones too, so at least it was quality over quantity. I also got a few bundles so you can guess how the backlog’s been doing…
Any good things you played this month?
| Played | Finished | Completed | Backlog+ | Achievements |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | 12 | 7 | 28 | 243 |
ABC Challenge Progress (6/26)
Finished this month: 3Most Satisfying Finish
Most Exciting Addition
-
Crowntakers
30 hours playtime
42 of 48 achievements
-
Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy
3 hours playtime
no achievements
-
Human: Fall Flat
12 hours playtime
33 of 51 achievements
-
Midnight Mysteries: Salem Witch Trials
4 hours playtime
14 of 14 achievements
-
Thea: The Awakening
33 hours playtime
14 of 31 achievements
-
Midnight Mysteries 3: Devil on the Mississippi
8 hours playtime
16 of 16 achievements
-
Midnight Mysteries 4: Haunted Houdini
6 hours playtime
16 of 16 achievements
-
Midnight Mysteries: Witches of Abraham - Collector's Edition
5 hours playtime
no achievements
-
The Turing Test
7 hours playtime
15 of 15 achievements
-
Dex
18 hours playtime
32 of 32 achievements
-
Ticket to Earth
20 hours playtime
30 of 46 achievements
-
Gunpoint
6 hours playtime
33 of 42 achievements
I had started this one a long time ago and always wanted to go back and finish it, so the ABC challenge was the perfect opportunity. Crowntakers is a nice tactics rogue-like game where you go through the kingdom to try to save the king on time, while recruiting yourself a team of mercenaries with different sets of skills along the way. The main problem of the game is that even though each time the maps are generated in an aleatory manner, it still gets a bit repetitive after a while. I think still overall the game is fun and is worth grabbing on sale (it's currently 80% off as this post is published), including the DLC, if you like turn-based tactics.
Midnight Mysteries: The Edgar Allan Poe Conspiracy
3 hours playtime, no achievements
I got the whole series (of those available on steam) of the Midnight Mysteries recently, and the monthly theme was the perfect opportunity. I mostly play Artifex Mundi's games when it comes to HoGs so when I try others, I always have the tendency to compare them with those, even unconsciously. Even if visually, the MM series is not holding up to the AM ones, I found the gameplay actually more focused on the HoG scenes, which I appreciated. I liked the litterature related mystery plots (all along the series, you play an author who can communicate with ghosts, which happen to be famous people in need of help to solve the mystery around their death). Don't let the rough aspect discourage you, they're pretty good HoGs.
Human: Fall Flat
11 hours playtime, 33 of 51 achievements
Interesting puzzle game but it would have been better if the commands weren't wonky (on purpose, think octodad or surgeon simulator). I loved the exploring & puzzle part, but some parts were frustrating because of the controls. I genuinely had to take breaks because my hands were hurting. Still a good game but I'm not sure I would recommend it without a gamepad. At your own risk.
Midnight Mysteries: Salem Witch Trials
4 hours playtime, 14 of 14 achievements
The weakest one of the series, definitely. Also worth noting they can be played independantly, so you might has well skip this one.
Thanks to Last.M picking this for me in the September play your SG wins event, I finally got around to play it, and boy was it good and addictive. The gameplay might seems a bit similar to Civilization in a fantasy universe at first, but in reality you do not get to expand your city or get more towns either. Instead, you grow your population and form groups to go on expeditions, explore the world, collect ressources and bring them home to craft a lot of shiny stuff. It also has an interesting combat system in the form of a card game (but if you get bored by it, you can auto resolve the situation, result depends on your group members skills). On top of it, the art was really pleasant and so was the music. It's really one of my two big highlights of the month and I will definitely play more of this in the future. I recommend it to all fans of turn based exploration.
Midnight Mysteries 3: Devil on the Mississippi
8 hours playtime, 16 of 16 achievements
More in the series of the Midnight Mysteries. This time, the ghost of Mark Twain is the one taking you for a ride on the Mississippi.
Midnight Mysteries 4: Haunted Houdini
5 hours playtime, 16 of 16 achievements
More of the same, but this time you get to meet Houdini.
Midnight Mysteries: Witches of Abraham - Collector's Edition
5 hours playtime, no achievements
Another in the series, where you're visited by the ghost of Lincoln. I forgot to say, but the graphics get better as the series progress (still not AM, but still better HoG scenes).
The Turing Test
7 hours playtime, 15 of 15 achievements
Both Last.M and Lenor picked this one for me in 2 different challenges this month, so it was a must play, and I have to say it did not disappoint. It was a first person puzzler (a bit like Portal, but different mecanics) with a really interesting story. I don't wanna spoil the plot for you as I loved the discovery, so I won't go much into this, but there is a lot of lore to discover while you progress and solve the puzzles. Definitely another recommendation.
Progressing in my ABC challenge, I played Dex, a cyberpunk sidescrolling RPG with an interesting universe. I really liked both the mecanics and the visual style of it. The story is interesting, not too surprising or anything, but nice to play through. I definitely recommend giving it a try if you like cyberpunk or just sci-fi in general.
Ticket to Earth
20 hours playtime, 30 of 46 achievements
My other great discovery of the month. The game is a mix between tactics strategy and match 3. It might sound weird at first but it does work really well. You move around the grid and recharge your powers/damage/health by linking tiles of the same colors. You can them use those charged actions against your ennemies. The bright colors may make it look simple but it's really interesting and has more depth than it seems. The story is also interesting but for now only 2 episodes of the final 4 are out (still there is already a lot to play and the 2 other episodes will come for free once they're ready). Highly recommend it.
Gunpoint
6 hours playtime, 33 of 42 achievements
Finally, the last game I played before I went away was Gunpoint, that Lenor picked for me for the mid-month challenge. You play as a spy with special super pants (yes, I know, sounds weird) that let you jump super high. Help with that and several other gadgets, you have to infiltrate building, avoiding the security and various traps, to complete several objectives given to you. It's really fun and you can choose to either go totally stealth, full blown violent or a mix of both. Really neat.
-
The Secret Order 6: Bloodline
0 minutes playtime
0 of 28 achievements
-
Human: Fall Flat
12 hours playtime
33 of 51 achievements
-
The Banner Saga 2
0 minutes playtime
0 of 55 achievements
-
The Final Station
2 hours playtime
0 of 23 achievements
-
Midnight Mysteries: Salem Witch Trials
4 hours playtime
14 of 14 achievements
-
Flat Kingdom Paper's Cut Edition
0 minutes playtime
0 of 48 achievements
-
Ticket to Earth
20 hours playtime
30 of 46 achievements
-
The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel
0 minutes playtime
0 of 51 achievements
-
Eventide 2: The Sorcerers Mirror
0 minutes playtime
0 of 30 achievements
-
Endless Fables: The Minotaur's Curse
0 minutes playtime
0 of 33 achievements
-
The Slimeking's Tower
0 minutes playtime
0 of 37 achievements
-
Stories Untold
0 minutes playtime
0 of 13 achievements
-
Monster Slayers
0 minutes playtime
0 of 22 achievements
-
The Away Team
0 minutes playtime
0 of 10 achievements
-
Sonic Generations
0 minutes playtime
0 of 49 achievements
-
Beat Cop
0 minutes playtime
0 of 32 achievements
-
Death Road to Canada
0 minutes playtime
0 of 72 achievements
-
Heat Signature
0 minutes playtime
0 of 46 achievements
-
Worms W.M.D
0 minutes playtime
0 of 29 achievements
-
Displaced
0 minutes playtime
0 of 31 achievements
-
The Secret Order 5: The Buried Kingdom
0 minutes playtime
0 of 31 achievements
-
Rollers of the Realm
0 minutes playtime
0 of 32 achievements
-
Has-Been Heroes
0 minutes playtime
0 of 26 achievements
-
Pinstripe
0 minutes playtime
0 of 12 achievements
-
The Count Lucanor
0 minutes playtime
0 of 32 achievements
-
Hustle Cat
0 minutes playtime
0 of 12 achievements
-
Apotheon
0 minutes playtime
0 of 30 achievements
-
Psychonauts
0 minutes playtime
0 of 37 achievements
Super pretty post, with lots of yummy games played! Thea looks particularly fun.
I haven’t played much this September, as I’ve been super busy with Uni and stuff. Which is really unfortunate, because a certain sheep picked out some wonderful games for me for challenge me, and I might disappoint >.>
Don’t worry about that, real life comes first and you won’t disappoint me. Thea is really great, especially if you like exploring and crafting without being rushed.
Wow some nice games done this month. Seems September is a month of lowered gameplay for a lot of people. Hadn’t discovered Ticket to Earth before, so onto the wishlist it goes.
I also greatly enjoyed Dex and The Turing test. I like Sci-fi where it’s not all monsters and weirdness, just plain old futuristic fantasy.
Yeah I guess it’s the “back to school/work” effect that always seems to happen even if you haven’t taken a clear break during summer. Oh well, there has to be lows for it to have highs too, right?
Ticket to earth also has that scifi tone but I can’t tell you about the story overall as it’s only done to the middle by now. I also heard it was on mobiles if you prefer but playing on the PC was very comfy for me.
I’m so happy you enjoyed the games I picked for you. Turing Test is kind of a risky pick so I’m extra happy you liked it. As a linguistics graduate I especially loved the Chinese experiment part.
Gunpoint is a great game. I remember dismissing it at first due to 2D and pixel graphics. I’m so glad someone from my Stealth Purists group changed my mind about it and gave me the motivation I needed to try it out. It ended up being a game I liked quite a lot; though, I admit I loved its Jazz soundtrack a lot more than the actual game. I hope you enjoyed the music too because it made me feel like my ears were severed from my head and sent to heaven :D Of course noone “has to” like it so if you didn’t that’s totally okay :)
It’s disappointing to hear about the controls in Human Fall Flat. It was a game that really caught my attention at first when it was close to its release date but I lost interest because watching gameplay videos made me think the controls would most likely be clunky just for the sake of it similar to the games you mentioned. While it’s nice to see my concerns being confirmed, which will stop me from making a mistake, it’s saddening to turn away from the game because I’m such a sucker for puzzle games.
They were great picks so far, and I intend to play some of the others too if I can, thank you again for picking. The Turing Test got me flailing a lot as a computer science graduate and it had a lot of interesting back story hidden in those optional parts of each levels.
I had dismissed Gunpoint too as it didn’t seem like much plus I had got it as a bundle leftover extra once when I was activating the whole bundles, but I didn’t really know anything about it. I’m glad you made me pick it up as it’s really fun to play. The music was really nice too and very soothing. As a total coincidence, the day I played Gunpoint, I won Heat Signature, the new game of the same dev, from a friend. I was away after that but I can’t wait to give it a try as it seems like a mix between FTL and Monaco.
I think it was with you that I was chatting about Human Fall Flat when I was towards the end and had to stop for the day because my hands were hurting. I’m really not a huge fan of those wonky-on-purpose mechanics even if I understand there is a genre for it, to me it just adds a layer of frustration, not of fun. I think the game would have won a lot to just let you control your character normally. Meh.
Please let me know how much of Heat Signature can be stealthed. I saw the game but it didn’t interest me despite the stealth tag cause it looks to be a lot more actiony.
Yep that was me. I can definitely understand how tough controls can hurt fingers. During my Ori run I had to wear a glove on left hand and tape a cotton around the middle finger on my right hand so the controller wouldn’t kill my fingers. I couldn’t play anything for about 3 days due to a swollen left thumb after a 2-hour session in the game. I don’t even wanna imagine how it’d be like if it was Human Fall Flat.
Will let you know, I should start playing it soon as I promised to give feedback to the friend who got it to me. Did you play Monaco ? Because it can be both super actiony or super stealth (or a mix of both if you screw up and start panicking like me XD ). Will get back to you when I made myself an opinion on Heat Signature.
I didn’t play Monaco. I was interested in it at first but then I found out that it’s designed as a co-op game even though it is possible to play solo. From experience I learned that I simply don’t enjoy games that are more directed at co-op play. Everything becomes a massive chore in such games for one player only.
I’m looking forward to your Heat Signature review :)
I activated Human: Fall Flat because it looked fun, your reports about bad controls are kinda making me wish I didn’t.
I can’t stand games like that, it’s the same reason I had to abandon Grow Home despite it being really cute >_<
bad progress
That doesn’t look bad at all
Good luck. To be honest, I even found it worse than in grow home (but yes you totally see the style) because at least grow home never hurt my hands.
Just to be sure on this one. It is not that your real life makes bad progress but you making bad progress in your backlog due to busy real life? Because one woule be sad to hear and the other is not really much of a problem in my eyes.
Do you actually activate each game from a bundle? Because I too have still several bundle keys which just not appear in my backlog as I most likely don’t have interest playing them and probably give them away at some point. If you want something fast start with the Count of Lucanor. If you just want to see one ending, it is really short and nice horror themed game. Only bad point is the annoyingly slow movement of your characters.
Other than that I saw the new monthly theme and thought that technically Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet would fit into that. So if you are still up for those multiplayer achievements just give me a call :P
Oh, no, I meant it the second way around. My real life kept me busy.
I don’t activate every key no, far from there. I only activate things I really want to play (and sometimes not even, I have a few wishlisted games I have a key from from bundles that I still haven’t activated. Go figure. I’ll take your recommendation for the Count Lucanor, it was on my wishlist and fits my personnal spooktober theme. ;)
Oh yes, great idea, I should be around next week end if my connection doesn’t fall apart (It’s still unstable, so you never know), I’ll poke you on steam. Any time of the day that works best for you?
I would consider a busy real life a good thing unless it is mostly work related. So take it at as something positive.
Naturally in the evening. Although there is a chance that I’m playing some local co-op with a friend either saturday or sunday. Other than that just give a poke and I’ll answer. If I’m online chances should be good with that one exception :P