Long Overdue Update

Well it’s been a while, around 4 months since my last update!

I completed Dear Esther in a single sitting the day I won it on Steam Gifts. I really enjoyed it. Stunning graphics & interesting story line. I really enjoy short games I can finish in one sitting. I'll probably revisit it again for another play through as I'm sure I probably missed some things along the way. Anyway highly recommended if you like "walking simulators"

After just over 6 months & 22 hours playtime I've decided to call Blockwick 2 beaten. I've completed the 9 Blockwick 2 "standard" chapters (total of 144 levels) but not the bonus chapter. I've only done 1 of the 9 basic chapters. I've really enjoyed it and can thoroughly recommend it if you like sliding block puzzle games. I might return to it at a later date to complete the basic levels and try and get illumination on all levels but for now I'm Blockwicked out ;) Some of the levels towards the end were taking up to 30 minutes to complete with multiple attempts required.

After playing a number of point and click games I didn't really enjoy (I mainly find them a bit restrictive & rather boring) I finally found one I liked and finished it. I think I mainly liked Jolly Rover for it's sense of humor and the excellent cookie hint system which meant if I got stuck I could quickly find out the answer and move on.

I’ve actually played “a fair bit” of Borderlands 2 since the last update, mainly because I had a gaming weekend with some old college friends and on the odd occasion both my wife and myself are in the mood for some gaming this our turn to game.

I also played a bit of Secret World as it’s a game I can easily play remotely with my old college friends. A good but not great game :)

However, the game I’ve played the most is Plants vs. Zombies GOTY Edition which is slightly bizarre because it’s a game I don’t own. It’s a game I bought my eldest son for Christmas 2015 but he didn’t really get into it until the Christmas just gone when both he, my youngest son, myself & my wife have all been “addicted” to it, playing in via family sharing. It’s a fantastic game and one of the few games (well OK actually the only game) I’m achievement hunting. I’d really recommend this as a great family game.

Current Batch

• The Witcher: Enhanced Edition
  

  26 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Outland
  

  12 hours playtime

  3 of 12 achievements

• Hexcells
  

  32 minutes playtime

  3 of 6 achievements

Continued progress with The Witcher. I'm just starting to find it a bit repetitive as I've been stuck in the main city for a while now and could do with a change of scenery, which hopefully the quest line will introduce soon. My main issue with the game has been a sudden steep increase in difficulty which meant I found myself unable to complete three quest lines. Investigation into the use of potions has helped although I find the potion system a bit cumbersome. Anyway I'm persevering for now in the hope I'll make a break through shortly.

Steady progress continues with Outland, a platform game I'm still really enjoying and still intent on finishing (one day!)

I've added Hexcells to my current batch as it's a game I can just fire up for just 2 minutes and clear a level. Very enjoyable casual puzzle game with nice incremental difficulty and enough added functionality to keep it interesting. This type of game has come a long way since minesweep!

For The Future

I've also spent quite a bit of time actually installing, performing a short test play of and then categorising my SG wins. This has proved pretty successful and currently I am down to less than 33% (down from over 75%) unplayed which I intend to continue to reduce as an ongoing task and report back with some more regular updates on this.