February'23 overview

Feeling like I'm still treading water... With a light sense of moving forward.

Date	Games owned	Added this month	Never played (monthly change)	Beaten/Completed during month
February'23	356	+10	141 (-9)	13

I’m failing to avoid getting new games. Amount of never played games is the same as it was when I came to BLAEO - 141 titles (but still, in percentage terms, it dropped from 55% to 40% - this can be considered a success). New additions to my library are mainly short games though. I hope I will manage not to get more than 3-4 new games added in March… But it will require a lot of effort from me -_-

Very honorable mention (not a boast at all)

• Aperture Desk Job
  

  0.5 hours playtime

  no achievements

Aperture Desk Job is a nice little game, which I played at the beginning of the month IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE PURCHASE OF THE STEAM DECK!!!!1111 😀 Ladies and gentlemen, this is a real game changer for me! So far I’m happy with the device and how it perfectly fits into my life (I’m the type who suffers from short gaming sessions). I simply can play 15 minutes, turn it off, and continue to play from the very same place in the game hours later or even next day without losing any progress. That is sooooo convenient! It even works better for games where you can’t save progress between the chapters or checkpoints - you can slowly progress whenever you have time and mood. Well, in general, the Steam Deck suits me personally in almost everything and I can play more games with less friction.

Games highlights of February:

• Hollow Knight
  

  32.4 hours playtime

  20 of 63 achievements

• Stray
  

  6.1 hours playtime

  16 of 24 achievements

• Catie in MeowmeowLand
  

  3.2 hours playtime

  9 of 13 achievements

• DARQ
  

  4.8 hours playtime

  12 of 17 achievements

• A Tale of Paper
  

  4.0 hours playtime

  21 of 29 achievements

• TSIOQUE
  

  3.9 hours playtime

  31 of 31 achievements

Hollow Knight: It took me two months to beat the game with 77% progress and it was worth it. Should note that I felt punished a lot of times for playing it and I can’t imagine how much money one should offer me to make me complete it for 100% (for precision: 112%). But the overall experience from the game is great. 8/10 - if you already have it in your library you should definitely give it a try.

Stray: I won it on SG in December and deliberately postponed playing it until the purchase of the deck. The game is good, not as good as the hype around it ;) The game is simple, colorful and pleasant to play. The further along the story you are going the less world around you is interactive - that was kinda disappointing. There is so much to do in the first district of the city (explore, look for secrets and notes, solve puzzles), but with each new area of the city, everything becomes very linear and without any additional amusements. Game is good but overpriced, I think 50% discount is what you might want to look for before purchasing. 7/10

Catie in MeowmeowLand: A short absurd story with excellent art. Great for one or two evenings. Perfect to play with children :) A game for relaxation and to please your eyes. If you love the point’n’click genre - notice the game :) Grab it during sales with -50% and thank yourself later. 8/10

DARQ: The game exceeded my expectations. The base game and both free DLCs feel different, but all are good in their own way. The main game is such a complex experience both in terms of emotions and gameplay, and the DLCs are more like just puzzles in the game’s setting: it expands the mechanics and presents new ones, the puzzles themselves in the DLCs seem to be even more interesting, but there are no such emotions that were in the main game (does not “scare” and does not intrigue, almost no events are scripted to revive the world). Sound and graphics are excellent! 9/10

A Tale of Paper: I liked the game. In the reviews people wrote a lot that it is like Little Nightmares and Limbo had a cute baby… I disagree. In some ways, in style and essence (3D platformer with puzzles), of course, it reminds me of these games, but no more. Much weaker in immersion, in emotions. The style is nice, the sound is pleasant. Enjoyable 3d platformer. 6/10

TSIOQUE: A very special game for me. I stumbled upon it while I was searching for ROW keys to give away on SG last year in August. Cheap short game with excellent reviews and appealing art style - SOLD! Since then I have given away or gifted more than 20 copies of this game. Every time I said to myself: one day I will play it myself. But at the same time I was worried “Is the game really as good as it seems to me?”… And in January I finally got this game as a present (Blame Generous People™)! Excellent quest with very nice art. In some places the logic of the developers didn’t match mine and in several places puzzles were solved by old-good pixel-by-pixel clicking of the entire screen… But this is a common situation for point’n’click in my case :) The story is sweet, and the development of the plot (denouement) was unexpected. By the combination of parameters - a very good game at least for fans of games of this kind. 6/10