First Post on Backlog Assassin!
Hello, my fellow assassins! I’ve been planning to join you fine people for quite some time now, but somehow just kept putting it off. I’m sure that bodes well for my success here ;-)
Question for longtime members
Before I get to the state of my backlog, I had a quick question for any more experienced member of this site. I recently won a game bundle on SG with two games included. I already owned the first game and therefore got permission from the giveaway creator to enter only for the sequel. Naturally, SG registers me as having won both the first and second games since they are both included in the bundle, and this site likewise categorizes both as a win. Normally, this wouldn’t bother me since I liked and played both games. However, I first played the original game on a friend’s account and then purchased a copy on my own account to play fan made mods, rather than replay the main story. I therefore have no achievements and my playtime is low. Because I try to at least beat all my SG wins (and complete them if possible), it bothers me that this “unbeaten” game is showing up automatically under my SG wins category here. It’s not a big deal and I suppose I could just replay it, but if there is anything the site allows to deal with this type of situation, I’d appreciate the head’s up!
October’s Status Update
I have completed 3 games this month, beaten 2, and am working on 1 more.
I won this game on SG a couple of days ago and promptly completed it. It is the sequel to the cult classic "Amnesia: the Dark Descent." While it is recognizably an Amnesia game, they have changed a lot of the gameplay elements. They've removed the sanity meter and your light source is no longer limited. Monsters are much more scarce than in the original, and many of the ones you see are purely for the atmosphere and pose no danger to the player character. That being said, I still really enjoyed it. It still manged to create that quintessential Amnesia dread, as you explore through various notes and messages to uncover the story. The plot is fairly predictable but that doesn't detract from the ambiance.
It may not have been as well reviewed as the original, but in some ways I actually enjoyed "A Machine for Pigs" more.
I got this game for free from the developer by playing one of their other games "Cyrano Story." It's a relatively short walking simulator that concerns Cthulhu lore. There was nothing groundbreaking here: the story was enjoyable but predictable, the music and graphics were fine but not spectacular, the game play was easy to master but not innovative. The main weak spot was the dialogue--both the voice acting which was occasionally weak and the dialogue which was repetitive and often misjudged. I'd recommend it on sale as a pleasant way to spend a few hours, but have no interest in revisiting it. For horror fans hoping to get some scares, Moons of Madness will disappoint. It was at best suspenseful but honestly rarely reached even that.
Plus side: achievements were virtually unmissable.
I no longer remember when or where I got this game (except it wasn't from SG or any other giveaway site), but I found it in my backlog and decided to give it a try. It is a fairly simple point-and-click mystery adventure, with some supernatural elements introduced part way through. The voice acting was surprisingly good and while the graphics style isn't my personal favorite, it has a kind of pleasing charm. Easy to get 100% achievements, and the story was intriguing enough to keep players engaged. The ending was a bit weak, but nothing that ruined the game for me.
Overlord II 
24.2 hours, no achievements
I won this game on SG recently. It doesn't have any achievements on the PC version, but I tried to play as complete a run as possible (upgrading all my equipment, exploring all areas, etc). I had played the original game, so I was eager to try this sequel. It plays very much like its predecessor, similar combat mechanics and likewise very little plot. It's a bit of mindless fun although the repetitive nature of the gameplay makes completing it in multiple sessions a necessity.
I won this game on SG a few months ago and was playing it until my personal life temporarily got in the way. I cam back to it this month and beat it. I really enjoyed it, despite having little more than passing knowledge of the IP its based upon. I want to come back and 100% it some day, but as it would require an entire new playthrough in addition to several challenge mode maps, I don't anticipate coming back to it in the near future.
Still working on completing this game. I am set on 100% completing it, but it has been a bit of a slog to get through. I really like stealth games in general (I played both Dishonored games with very few breaks) but for some reason this one just isn't clicking the same way. It is enjoyable in small bursts but becomes overly repetitive quickly.
I am aiming to complete this game before the end of the month, but that may be overly optimistic.
Hi! Welcome to BLAEO :)
Lenor’s answer gave a pretty good idea of how most members seem to treat their duplicates. I agree, there is not much point in replaying them, just so they look nice on BLAEO. Personally I mostly left them in unplayed, but I may change that in the future. I think most members have their own set of small additional rules how to sort their games. Just do what seems sensible to you.
I see you have a knack for classic RPG games, that’s cool. I’m thinking of starting one myself, haven’t played any of those in a long time! But they always take such a big chunk of time :D Congratulations on getting all achievements in BG!
Thanks for the welcome! Yeah, I basically followed Lenor’s advice although I imagine it will continue to bug me, haha. Just because it is being marked as a SG win and I really try to complete all of those.
I love RPGs of all types, and constantly replaying them is what has prevented me from making more headway into my backlog! I was doing a complete re-play of the BG series in anticipation of BG3 and figured I might as well go for all the achievements while I was at it (my BG2 is on GOG so it doesn’t show up here). You got some of the old classics on your completed list too, I see (although what’s with the low Fallout rating?! No appreciation for the classics ;-) ).
Well, as long as you enjoy replaying them, I think it’s not that important to make progress in the backlog!
Yeah, I’ve played quite a few classics. I haven’t played most of them “back in the day”, so there is no nostalgic feeling when playing them. And some of them were really testing my patience with how old and clunky they were. Most of the time I could understand, why they were well received at release, but they were just not enjoyable for me personally anymore. Which was for example the case with Fallout. In addition I’m not overly fond of nuclear wasteland settings, which in combination led to the bad rating.
I won’t post the usual “welcome to hell” GIF so just welcome aboard. ;)
There’s couple of games that were added to Steam or upgraded to separate GOTY, Enhanced, etc editions while the original ones still remain in the library. Not that I really care much for completion, though. I guess I’ll just get around to playing the latest version unless I’ve played the original already. You obviously shouldn’t force yourself to a replay a game you already finished.
Moons of Madness
I have this one wishlisted hoping it’s going to pop up on Humble Choice. So it’s a walking simulator through and through? Eh.
Honestly, I had a hard time coming up with a description for Moons of Madness. It isn’t pure walking simulator–there’s a little bit of combat, and even a “boss battle” of a type. But, the game is definitely based upon experiencing the story and not about any other mechanics (even the puzzles are very straight forward). It only takes about 6 hours, and it was enjoyable for what it is but approaching it as a walking simulator will let you get more enjoyment out of it. If you go into it thinking it will have more substantial gameplay, you are going to be disappointed.
Welcome, welcome! Hope you have fun endlessly playing your backlog games, like the rest of us. :D
BLAEO is great where you can just use it as personal lists, or you can lurk/interact with people and events as much as you like. No pressure!
I heard about Overlord II this year and was intrigued, as it seemed similar to Pikmin and focused on humour. But I don’t usually like RTS that much so I’ve definitely been umming and ahhing over it for a while. Maybe one day if I stumble on a copy will give it a try.
Thanks for the welcome! I’ve never heard of Pikmin so I can’t comment on the similarity, but Overlord’s humor is rather simplistic. It’s more about gleefully doing the “evil” thing than outright humor. I’d definitely wait for a bundle or sale to try it.
I knooooow, I’m super late, but still:
Welcome to BLAEO and your fight against the backlog!
As for the question - not sure if you need more input on it - it really depends for me. Like a game without achievements? Yeah, done that somewhere else? Begone, game! (Aka beaten.) But if it has achievements I’m screwed and will play it. Also if I very much liked it, I will play it :D So yeah, complicated question. Luckily nowadays the majority of my games I haven’t played before. So yay! (I will never ever get Sims on steam though!)
Right, onto your battle against the backlog. There are a few things the side offers. Firstly there is a monthly theme each month, which you can find at the top. Also on the 15th of each month there is a new Challenge Me! round starting, where some other member would pick 5 games for you, if you want to. Both are ofc no obligation, just a nice recommendation :3
Other than that ppl often come up with some unique way to do this. There is for example an ABC Challenge flying around - although I might be the last one working on it, since I’m apparently easy to distract and do thousands of other things on the side thinking You can always just check out what others do, imho every body is willing to share their ideas/approaches, if you ask them :)
Good luck with the fight!
Happy backlog killing!
Nin
Thanks for the welcome and all the additional information! I had heard about the monthly themes and and the Challenge Me! event, but I had no idea about the ABC Challenge. I took a look at my backlog to see how feasible it was and haha, I will never successfully complete that. I’ll probably accept the Challenge and try anyway but a lot of my letters would require 60+ hours games to complete. I think it might take more than the one year time limit many people imposed on themselves lol.
Weirdly, I am glad to see someone else whose impulse is to replay the game on steam to get the achievements. It just really bugs me, especially because it is being counted as a SG win. If I end up doing the ABC Challenge though, it would make a good entry…. ;-)
Ah yeah, I think I have games like that on my list as well. Though I tried avoiding endless games. Well games I consider endless at least xD
And no one year limit for me! OMG! I STARTED ABOUT 3 YEARS AGO! shocked I should really finish this! falls over
Well “only” 2 and a half left, so… yeah… I should :D
I accidentally have I think 3 games twice on steam - don’t ask me how that works, but for some reason it does - and they don’t even have achievements, still… yeah… done that hides But I swear, that’s the… uhm… probably exception. I might be wrong about my statement. I’m not sure anymore xD
Haha, in some ways I find “endless” games (like Civilization, or the Sims) to be easier to have in my backlog because I can just choose when I’ve beaten it. “Oh, I’ve played this for 20 hours? That seems done!” Games with lengthy campaigns (like my all time favorite genre RPGs) not only have a long main quest but also I feel like I haven’t really played the game if I don’t do all the side content too.
Are they different versions of the same game i.e. a definitive version vs. the original game? I’ve got quite a few like that; I’ve already decided to just mark the additional copy as beaten lol. There’s no way that I am playing 300+ hours of Skyrim SE when I’ve already done so with the Legendary Edition ;-)
The most frustrating thing is when you’ve played a game to completion and then they add achievements. I have one game in my steam library that has around 80 hours of playtime and 0 achievements! The frustration is real =D
Yeah, but… I want all the achievements, so…. I might have a problem O.O
Oh, yeah, I get that. I’m still conflicted about the Bioshock games. I have the first to twice. Once normal and once remastered. I should just say I did both, but… I’m very bad at this. I feel it’s getting worse, the more we’re writing laughs
Oh yes, I hate when they do that! I mean, just give us achievements right from the start or don’t! But… not at some point later on, where most ppl have already played it and have to get back to it! I mean I don’t mind with some games I love, but the rest? That’s just mean! Or even worse: Them adding just one or two achievements and you always thought you had it 100% but in truth not anymore! Bc why wouldn’t one do this, right??? So yeah, not nice D:
Although coming back to your first statement: I’ve been thinking about playing the earlier Civ games for one go and say I’ve completed them. Just have to get round to actually doing that xD
Oh yeah, I understand the desire to get all achievements. You can’t tell from my fairly low number of perfect games, but that desire has motivated me to play games long past the time I was sick of them lol.
Yep, or when they add achievements when they release a DLC regardless of whether you own the DLC. There is literally no way to achieve them without spending more money. Oh! Or those achievements awarded for being a kickstarter? I mean, nice thought, but all non-kickstarters can never perfect that game.
Hah! I don’t think I’ve ever actually completed a Civ game. I like to play with mods (shoutout to GOT mod!) so I often don’t even play the main campaign ;-)
Yeah, that. Omg, Cities Skylines. I don’t even now anymore how to overcome all those achievements or where to start or… aaaaaaaaaaaah! O.O
Or achievements, that are not meant to be beaten - encountered so far only one and it is still driving me nuts -.-
Haha, I never played with mods. I started on 5 I think but didn’t get that far with my achievements. Haven’t even touched 6 yet >.<
I have a lot of games I finished before I got them on Steam. I simply put them on “completed” if they have no achievements or “beaten” if they have achievements. I also have a category list called “Finished Outside of Steam” so I can easily keep track of them. Maybe I’ll wanna go achievement hunting or just simply replay to re-experience them since it’s been so long since I finished those games. That category lets me know exactly what was finished before their Steam acquisition so I can make an informed decision.
I don’t think you should play a game you previously played just to make it look finished on Blaeo; that is if you don’t want to play it at that moment. Just mark it as beaten or completed according to your preference and feel free to create a brand new category for such games. If you are in the mood to replay those games down the line, you’ll have a ready list waiting for you ;)
Welcome.
Thanks for the advice! I decided to mark it beaten and group it in with with “games played elsewhere” although I might make a lone “game already owned before won in bundle” tag just for this one, lol.
Thanks again :-)