November'23 overview

Oh boy! I failed again!

Date	Games owned	Added this month	Never played (monthly change)	Beaten/Completed during month
November'23	414	+11	128 (+2)	5

I bought Dishonored 2 and Prey, because it was sooo cheap (especially in bundle) and I couldn’t step away from it. Also bought Katamari Damacy REROLL to play it with daughter. And failed again and bought Bramble: The Mountain King… in bundle with Spirit of the North (it was almost twice cheaper in bundle then stand alone!). I also won Batman Arkham Origins, Tinykin, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor GoTY, The Ramp and Behind the Frame: The Finest Scenery on SG. And cherry on top - I grabbed Half-Life Limited Free Promotional Package for, well, free. I even didn’t know I didn’t have original HL in my library… And I’m pretty sure I had an Orange Box :D

So +11 new titles to my library in one month… More than I planned for sure… And we are looking forward to December… Probably next month is a month of failure again!

Games highlights of November (no reviews this time):

• Batman: Arkham Origins
  

  17.9 hours playtime

  21 of 60 achievements

• Death's Door
  

  10.7 hours playtime

  14 of 24 achievements

• Patch Quest
  

  7.7 hours playtime

  9 of 27 achievements

• Prey
  

  6.6 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Rain on Your Parade
  

  19.3 hours playtime

  15 of 33 achievements

October'23 overview

At least I played a lot ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Date	Games owned	Added this month	Never played (monthly change)	Beaten/Completed during month
October'23	403	+6	126 (-1)	6

During month of October I once again got more games than I expected… I bought Happy Game and Rayman Legends, won Torn Away and Patch Quest on SG, got Rain on Your Parade as a gift for daughters birthday (and she actually manage to play most of levels by herself) and got The Bookwalker as a return thank you from the person (so technically it’s not a gift, but I still consider it a gift). In total my library became 6 games more heavier.

Games highlights of October:

• Remnant: From the Ashes
  

  25.8 hours playtime

  33 of 50 achievements

• Batman: Arkham City GOTY
  

  19.3 hours playtime

  35 of 64 achievements

• Bastion
  

  7.5 hours playtime

  9 of 24 achievements

• The Bookwalker
  

  7.1 hours playtime

  30 of 37 achievements

• Torn Away
  

  4.7 hours playtime

  32 of 35 achievements

• Happy Game
  

  3.1 hours playtime

  11 of 11 achievements

Remnant: From the Ashes: I enjoyed this game even more than I expected. It is not as grindy as I thought (at least if you are aiming just to beat the story line on a standard difficulty but not to complete it on hard). Worlds you visit are pretty different, mobs have some actual difference between “bioms”, there are some secrets you can look for to make playing more fun, plenty of weapons/talents/modes to find “own style”. Storyline itself is not that great, probably because most of it is told through different notes you can find around. Or miss them.

DLC “Subject” was also good, I really liked how they made a puzzle from one of the locations, I couldn’t solve it myself and used tips from YouTube, but overall it was a very interesting quest. And how the story is told in the DLC is much more appealing - more cut scenes, less notes and questions :)

Should note that game wasn’t perfect. At first I started as melee character, but later understood I prefer mid range battles, even without mouse available. That was frustrating at some point as there is no way to re-distribute talent points (there is a way, but you have to finish main campaign first). And there was a huge bug in the very end of the Subject DLC: after dying in first battle with the last boss the portal to get back to him haven’t spawned… I was reloading game, region, tried going to adventure mode… Nothing helped. But after the reload of the Deck (because of software update) portal finally spawned and was usable. But I had some frustrating time with the issue.

Oh! One more thing: beating the bosses gives same good feeling as I got from Cuphead :) My rate is 7 out of 10.

Batman: Arkham City GOTY: It took me almost a year to start playing City after I finished Knight and Asylum. The game is good. Like really good. I rate Knight as 10 out if 10 and Asylum as 6 out of 10. And it no surprise that City for me was 8 out of 10 :) Playing it was very engaging. In no way this old game is outdated in 2023. Gameplay wise and graphic wise it is still good. If you missed the series as I did - pay attention to it ;)

Bastion: I liked the combat in this game, unlike its implementation in Transistor. Graphically the game is very nice, as is the sound. But since everything has so much in common in style and voices/music with Transistor, I couldn’t calmly enjoy all this without the stupid thought that pops up from time to time: “Well, they tried better in Transistor.” I finished it with interest, even though my ass was burning from replaying the last “mission” five times because of the crashes. But I was able to finish the main story without any extra violent compulsion against my will. And the plot… I had to watch YouTube after beating the game as I had quite a few questions left. The game is not bad, but it is 5 out of 10 at best.

The Bookwalker: Played it over the weekend and specifically went to drink green tea at lunch to finish it off on monday :)

Very enjoyable game. A lot of rough edges, but nothing that will actually ruin your impressions. I don’t know how close it is in spirit to Disco Elysium (many people talk about that), but having experience playing DE for about an hour, I didn’t see any similarities other than isometry.
It plays like a good point-click quest with an interesting story. Interesting design, setting and plot presentation. It was interesting to poke your nose into all the cracks and gradually learn more and more about the world in which you found yourself (although it seems that even the developers do not have answers to all the questions that may arise about the world). Each story within a story is also good and exciting. As for me, they managed to reach the level of good prose (when you are resting while reading and what you read have a sufficient number of plot twists so as not to get bored).

I didn’t quite appreciate the built-in combat mechanics: the vast majority of battles are about as interesting and action-packed as pressing the “skip battle” button. But as an element of gameplay diversity it’s quite OK. I was a little disappointed with the illusory nature of the existing choices in the game: in the first third of the game I still somehow tried to play the role based on the plot, but later I realized that I didn’t have to bother.

The only downsides to the game are the poor music component and the generally meager work with sound - whether with sound or without sound, the perception of the game does not change much.

The game is easy to read and the puzzles are also easy. The eye rejoices in the process. The game feels like watching a good TV series. I would definitely recommend taking a closer look at this sale for anyone who loves story-oriented adventure games and quests. My rate is 7 out of 10.

Torn Away: If we will brake the game into elements, then each of them is weak (except for graphics and sound - there are zero complaints here at all, and the work with sound in the game is generally very competent: the music, the sounds, and the way everything was mixed worked very well for the atmosphere). The game has rare platforming (which is almost bad), a walking simulator for an amateur, half-baked quests, inserts of graphic novels, 2D stealth… in general, there are really a lot of genres mixed in, and everything individually is implemented quite mediocre. But since all this is mixed up and works well for the atmosphere and immersion, it’s not particularly important, in my opinion. Apart from the platforming, nothing really bothered me.

It was sad to play it, the plot and presentation were quite depressing. But here I think it’s obvious. In general, the game gives emotions, in some places it creates a good feeling of loss, in others a feeling of hopelessness, but in my opinion they didn’t cope well with the feeling of fear. All these chases, fascists banging on doors and other hungry wolves weren’t very scary.

As an interactive story I rate it as 6 out of 10

Happy Game: I guess my expectations were too high. Game is good and worth its price during sales… But I expected more craziness. It was interesting experience but nothing actually remarkable. 5 out of 10.

September'23 overview

It was okeish again

Date	Games owned	Added this month	Never played (monthly change)	Beaten/Completed during month
September'23	397	+4	127 (-3)	6

Overall September was similar to August. I bought two games A Juggler’s Tale and Zodiacats; won N++ from the community train on SG (one win out of 200+ joined giveaways) and took Alpaca Stacka for free (nice little game to play with a child, we completed it in 11 minutes). +4 new game to my library in total. And three of them already finished. Even though I didn’t had a lot of time to play this month again - my backlog albeit not significantly, but it has become smaller. Slightly proud of my self.

Games highlights of September:

• Rayman Origins
  

  12.1 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Cat Quest II
  

  5.6 hours playtime

  4 of 9 achievements

• Minute of Islands
  

  6.1 hours playtime

  14 of 17 achievements

• A Juggler's Tale
  

  2.6 hours playtime

  18 of 18 achievements

Rayman Origins: A very good, old fashioned, arcade game. Game sessions last 5-15 minutes. An ideal option for Steam Deck to squeeze in some gaming in small windows of free time. Diverse worlds, quite a lot of mechanics. It is generally done in such a way that it never gets boring.
Complex enough, but not too difficult to be off-putting. Only with the final boss I had problems: it can be beaten in 9 minutes (according to YouTube), but it took me almost an hour… Really happy I grabbed this one durin summer sale :) 8/10

Cat Quest II: I’m a big fun of the Cat Quest 1 - I have completed it with joy. It is even on my Steam profile listed as one of my favorite ones… Thus, I myself do not understand why I put off completing the second part for so long. Taking into account that soonish we will get Cat Quest III - I decided that time has come! Welp… I’m kinda disappointed as a result :/ I was playing solo, since it is impossible for me to find someone to play with and the game is 100% polished to be played in Co-Op.
When you are playing solo, the second character becomes an unkillable, death machine. Instead of finding the best combination of weapons, armor and spells or leveling up (as was the case in the first part) to defeat all the enemies that are becoming more and more powerful and tenacious you can just cheese everything using you stupid, but unkillable, AI partner. And game like forces you to do it - not doing it just feels like wasting your time. Probably in a Co-Op with a living being the game is much more fun. But for me it was “Meh”, not bad but nothing I will remember or will want to replay. 5/10

Minute of Islands: Amazing game. On the one hand, it is so slow that I would like to call it burdensome… The entire gameplay essentially repeats itself over and over again, changing decorations does not bring variety to the gameplay itself. But at the same time, it’s so captivating that I literally finished it in a few sittings and was intrigued the whole way :)
It felt like I was the main character in one of the depressing parallel universes of Adventure Time. I still don’t understand how they managed to pack it all in such a way that you can play the game from start to finish without wanting to quit. In general, I really liked it. Beautiful, exciting, emotional. 7/10

A Juggler’s Tale: I really like short interactive stories like this one. It is beautifully made with good sound. Puzzle/platformer part is solid made too. Storyline was also good with a nice twist in the end when I was like “Wow! I was missing that from the beginning, while it was clear!”. 7/10

August'23 overview

Okeish

Date	Games owned	Added this month	Never played (monthly change)	Beaten/Completed during month
August'23	393	+4	130 (-2)	3

In August, there was somehow not much time for games, so it was not very productive in terms of fighting my backlog… But there weren’t very many new games added either, so this is probably not so important. This month I got “Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Free” to my library, marked it “won’t play” immediately. AoE is no avaiable in my region and since I was able to add it via SteamDB - I decided just add it while I can :) Won “DREDGE” and “Resident Evil / biohazard HD REMASTER” on SG. Bought “Cat Goes Fishing” (daughter asked for it). +4 new games to library.

Games highlights of July:

• DREDGE
  

  13.5 hours playtime

  35 of 40 achievements

• Draw a Stickman: EPIC
  

  2.5 hours playtime

  14 of 52 achievements

• I commissioned some cats
  

  1.9 hours playtime

  16 of 16 achievements

DREDGE: At the beginning the game was really very good It is pretty interesting to explore the world and “lvlup” through catching various fish. The plot is interesting, but nothing outstanding. Really interesting mix of meditative fishing and horror elements. Until I got used to the game and world, it was even a little scary at night :) Especially I won’t forget the first meeting with the ship on the horizon… And those tentacles and crabs catchers for snag… A couple of times I even panicked and flew at speed on the rocks 😅

In the end, you just roam back and forth without any kind of challenge, just looking for a fish and story related stuff… You have plenty of resources, you don’t need money, the ship has most of upgrades… All horror part is no longer scary and is easy to manage.

Solid game, I played with pleasure. But definitely not worth the money that they ask for it right now. I would rate the game at 6/10.

Draw a Stickman: EPIC: Very interesting concept but “meh” realization. If you don’t have it in your library - you probably don’t need it to get it. 4/10

I commissioned some cats: It was OK. Nothing special and definitely not worth the full price, but at 70% discount can be a good catch for people who love such a time waste :) 6/10

July'23 overview

Not Great, Not Terrible

Date	Games owned	Added this month	Never played (monthly change)	Beaten/Completed during month
July'23	389	+8	132 (0)	4

Taking into account that it was a Summer Sale Time - I think I managed to be reasonable in getting new games to my library. I just bought 5 games*: Control Ultimate Edition, Pizza Tower, Death’s Door, One Hand Clapping and Rayman Origins. The chances these games won’t be buried in my backlog are big - all of them were on my radar for a quite some time and I’m firm I will like playing them! Though, as all of them are purchased by myself - they can wait, while I can still keep focus on my SG wins and gifts from others. And regarding the gifts…

I showed an iron will and did not accept a single gift. Generous kind people tried to seduce me more than 20 times this month! Thank you all and do not be offended by my “closeness”.

Only one SG win: “Intravenous”. And only one grab-it-while-it-is-free game: “Dungeon of the ENDLESS™” - looks like something I can enjoy playing.

*I bought 1 more game just one day before the month ended… But I was forced! Little woman (a.k.a. sweet daughter) forced me to buy the “I commissioned some cats” at the full price (never do it, unless you are 3 y.o. crying girl and buying it can make you stop crying… In any other case wait for 50% discount at least)!

So, again, I’ve failed: +8 new games to my library.

But! I also managed to play some games and even finished some of them + dug my library for multiplayer games I don’t plan to play to reduce an amount of unplayed games. Found “Half-Life Deathmatch: Source” - I played it years ago and don’t have plans to do it again; found “SpellForce 3: Versus Edition” that doesn’t have any single player content and I don’t see my self playing it either; also found “Knightfall: A Daring Journey” - nor have idea when and why I got it to my library nor have plans to play this miltiplayer-only game. Just -3 to “never played” count but out of fin air - that is sweet taking into account how many new games I got :3

My resolution for August is to avoid buying any big games… But short games and games that I might buy because of the little woman shouldn’t be counted…

Games highlights of July:

• Curse of the Dead Gods
  

  27.2 hours playtime

  18 of 30 achievements

• Half-Life 2
  

  10.3 hours playtime

  24 of 33 achievements

• Intravenous
  

  7.1 hours playtime

  26 of 45 achievements

Curse of the Dead Gods: lazy-mode-activated: copypasta from my SG comment: It was pretty challenging to get to the final boss and beat it, I almost gave up to be honest (not only game need some skills that I seem to lack, like being able to make perfect parries, but also need a ton of luck). At first I was trying to beat the game by pumping up dexterity, it felt like I was close every time - just needed to get more DPS to bit it… But after almost giving up I red some tips on the internet and people said it is better to pump up perception to get more gold during runs. So I refocused on that and OH BOY! That was a game changer. I was able to buy more and better upgrades during runs! On my final run I had 75 points of perception (90+ after upgrades before final boss) + both my main weapons got % of damage for each point of perception + i got relic +6% for base damage for every 1k gold I had (and after paying for upgrades I managed to save 9k!) and on top of that I got a relic that healed me for crit damage. The final run was really unrealistically good! Probably emotions I got in the end paid off for all the hours of repetitive actions I did :D Maybe you depend on RNG too much in this game and there are too much of grind - but it is solid 7 out of 10.

Half-Life 2: Not my first playthrough, but finally I made it on Steam! After so many years, even taking into account that it is not my first playthrough, the game is still good. Of course, without the WOW effect, but in terms of graphics and gameplay it is very worthy. No worse Better than many modern games. 9/10

Intravenous: lazy-mode-activated: copypasta from my SG comment: It was more challenging than I expected, but I enjoyed it anyway :) Initially I was planning to play it on Steam Deck but I sucked so bad with controls that I played it on PC. This game is 10 times better with keyboard and mouse. But on a PC I had wired graphical glitches every time there were something laying for pickup on a ground or near doors - that added another layer of challenge to my playthrough 😅 Nevertheless, it was interesting and without any “coercion” I went through the main story and even hunted for some achievements after beating it. That was very interesting gaming experience, can’t remember playing anything alike (top-down shooter with a bias towards stealth) ever. 6/10

June'23 overview

Kinda proud of myself this time

Date	Games owned	Added this month	Never played (monthly change)	Beaten/Completed during month
June'23	381	+4	132 (-6)	7

I was very focused this month in terms of not getting new games… But still bought my self some unnecessary games: “Mister Burnhouse” (because it was bloody cheap on sale and it is a really short game (although not yet finished by the developer) and I like style and why not to support a small indie dev from my region…) and “Submerged: Hidden Depths” (because I thought it was a price glitch when I saw the sale price for it, also game seems really decent to play on Deck and reviews are good).
Also I won “Curse of the Dead Gods” on SG and got “Remnant: From the Ashes - Complete Edition” as bonus from the same person (the generosity of people never ceases to amaze me).

Also I was fortune enough to get some extra free time for gaming in the second part of month and finished 7 games (5 of them were started and finished in last two weeks).

Games highlights of June:

• Röki
  

  8.4 hours playtime

  24 of 32 achievements

• FAR: Changing Tides
  

  4.6 hours playtime

  25 of 35 achievements

• Transistor
  

  4.5 hours playtime

  9 of 33 achievements

• INSIDE
  

  3.9 hours playtime

  14 of 14 achievements

Röki: Nice interactive Scandinavian fairytale in the form of point and click quest. Far from perfect, but satisfying. History, sound and graphics - there are no complaints, everything is very smooth and pleasant. But the gameplay itself, although in general it almost never puzzled me, is sometimes “stuffy”: a lot of unnecessary repetitions when you already figured out what to do, but have to do exactly same thing 3-5 times in a raw. Also there are some very slow animations that don’t make the game any better, only longer. In fact, the game took me about 12 hours (Steam Deck wasn’t always online), and out of these 12 hours, at least 3 hours is an empty delay in the gameplay where I watched how MC slowly moving or doing something. I don’t like such stuff. But overall it is a good game I enjoyed. 6/10

FAR: Changing Tides: That is a disappointment of the year for me. The game is not that bad, but when compared to FAR: Lone Sails (which I liked a lot) it is totally dull and empty. I wasn’t engaged while playing, I had close to zero emotions… There is no need at all to do resources management or keeping up speed high. Whole game gave me a filling like I’m watching a YouTube walkthrough but with the need to press buttons to role the video. I wasn’t there. Game had nothing to engage me and entertain. 3/10

Transistor: Stylistics, visuals and especially sound - just a bomb. But the gameplay itself turned out to be boring for me: I gave up on tactics and just put together a combo of an uber attack that brought down any opponent with 2-3 pokes (including bosses) and pumped a little dash in order to effectively run from enemies while the uber-atack is on cooldown. As result all the fights for me we the same as a carbon copy and the game wasn’t able to captivate me enough to make me change anything or study it deeper. But I liked it, it was very pleasant gaming experience I’m not sorry for. 5/10

INSIDE: One of the first games I installed on my Steam Deck in Februarary and only got to it this month. Very atmospheric. Immerses and creates such a good oppressive tension (as in Little Nightmares, when you are always on the lookout - but not scarried). Easely beaten without any hints and spoilers from web in three hours and once beaten it only requires 30 minutes to complete it with minor tips (after cheking up in what chapters you have missed the collectibles). In general, if someone has not played yet, I recommend it. Brief and very immersive experience. 10/10

May'23 overview

Oops I did it again...

Date	Games owned	Added this month	Never played (monthly change)	Beaten/Completed during month
May'23	377	+10	138 (+3)	5

Welp, I failed again not to hoard the games. I bought 4 games, got 1 gift, won 2 games on SG and added 2 free games to my library (Hue and Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War - both seemed good enough to grab them). Blaeo still counts that I got 1 more game - probably it is Atomic Heart Demo or something else I got with previously listed games). Getting games is much more easier than finishing them 😅 Out of approximately 35 hours of gaming I had in May ~20 hours took beating the Doom Eternal… I definitly should apply some sort of diet to my games library, but it seems impossible - I always find excuses to add new games…

Games highlights of May:

• DOOM Eternal
  

  19.8 hours playtime

  19 of 50 achievements

• Titanfall® 2
  

  6.6 hours playtime

  30 of 50 achievements

• TOHU
  

  5.2 hours playtime

  15 of 21 achievements

• Shady Part of Me
  

  4.5 hours playtime

  8 of 16 achievements

DOOM Eternal: I enjoyed the game but can’t say I agree that it is “wow epic 9/10!” type of game. It was fun and engaging, but after beating it I’m not sure I want to play more of it. Not even sure I want to get DLCs (The Ancient Gods) or even try multiplayer. 7/10

Titanfall® 2: Never played Titanfall but heard a lot of good things about the game. So bought it while it was on the big discount. I played only campaign and enjoyed it a lot. Very well directed action. Beautiful graphics. A lot of mechanics, including very impressive ones (for example, a chapter where you had to move between realities). I was so engaged I finished the game in couple of sittings in two days. 9/10

TOHU: Purposefully took this game to play with my daughter. We liked it (she liked it a little more). Very nice drawing. In general, loic and understandable riddles. Special thanks to the developers for the built-in hint system - in those rare moments when I started to get stupid, and my daughter began to lose interest - it was enough just to win a mini-game and get a hint. Thus, the whole game was beaten without losing pace. 6/10

Shady Part of Me: Very beautiful and atmospheric game. The music was a delight. Not difficult at all, if you do not set yourself the task of finding and collecting all the “birds”. Although I do not regret the time spent in the game, in general, I will not remember it and I would not recommend it. 5/10

April'23 overview

Good productive month

Date	Games owned	Added this month	Never played (monthly change)	Beaten/Completed during month
April'23	367	+4	135 (-4)	7

Overall - a good gaming month for my backlog. The longer games finished while new additions to my library are short games. And well, again, can’t resist to praise the Steam Deck. Uber machine for utilization of free time for gaming (more specifically, snippets of free time that are scattered all around the day, like in transport or before sleep or while you have 10-30 minutes of “waiting for something/someone”). According to my Steam Stats this tiny beast allows me to spend twice more time gaming than I was able before purchasing it.

Games highlights of April:

• Metro Exodus
  

  36.2 hours playtime

  49 of 68 achievements

• Deus Ex: Human Revolution
  

  23.2 hours playtime

  41 of 49 achievements

• Shantae and the Seven Sirens
  

  13.8 hours playtime

  29 of 40 achievements

• Hard Reset
  

  9.3 hours playtime

  54 of 115 achievements

Metro Exodus: Open world elements done right. Stealth done right. Storytelling done right. Level design done right… I can’t find what is not done right :) The game is awesome, both DLCs are good. 9/10

Deus Ex: Human Revolution: I just drowned in the world of the game and explored all the nooks and crannies. The game has an insane amount of detail and is a lot of fun to explore. The number of ways to achieve the desired result in the game (climb somewhere, defeat someone) is really impressive. This game could also get a stable 9/10, but last chapter and final boss were so bad, that they really spoiled the overall game experience. 7/10

Shantae and the Seven Sirens: Previous month I have finished Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse and now Seven Sirens. Not sure if the issue that I haven’t made a bigger pause between games or not, but Seven Sirens feels more boring while doing backtracking. All two previous Shantae games I finished I got 100% of all collectable items, in Seven Sirens I gave up at 77%. Nevertheless the game is good and enjoyable. Very cute metroidvania. 7/10

Hard Reset: Old school, well balanced (I played on medium difficulty) arena shooter. Perfect for 20-30 minutes play sessions, good feeling of progress in the game, good level design. I got vibes similar to those I had from Painkiller (the original) and Quake. 6/10

March'23 overview

Task Failed Successfully

Date	Games owned	Added this month	Never played (monthly change)	Beaten/Completed during month
March'23	363	+9	139 (-2)	8

I was aiming to get only 3-4 new games added to my library in March… Welp - I got 9 according to BLAEO (while actually it should be 7).
► I got free games: 1) Tukoni 2) Samorost 1 3 )Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep: A Wonderlands One-shot Adventure Limited Free Promotional Package 4) Postmouse
► got one gift 5) Ori and the Will of the Wisps
► won one game on SG 6) Hard Reset Extended Edition
► and bought one game during sale 7) Pilgrims

Total is 7, but according to BLAEO stats it is 9.

On one hand it doesn’t actually matter wherever I got 7 or 9 new games in my library - I failed anyway :) But on the other hand I actually did well: I bought only one game during a huge sale and I actually finished and played more games then I got (or same amount, depending who counts - me or BLAEO). So it is some sort of positive progress I guess and thus, in general, I can be a little bit proud of myself :)

Games highlights of March:

• Cult of the Lamb
  

  15.0 hours playtime

  28 of 37 achievements

• The Entropy Centre
  

  11.7 hours playtime

  25 of 27 achievements

• Shantae and the Pirate's Curse
  

  13.6 hours playtime

  32 of 44 achievements

Cult of the Lamb: In general, I liked the game, but the feelings are not unambiguous. As a mix of farm simulator and roguelite, it’s very original and funny. Overall, killing time with the game was enjoyable. But each component separately feels somehow weakly :/ Runs through the “dungeons” are very monotonous, in fact there are only two types of weapons and three types of curses, tarot cards also do not really add variety. The monsters are the same in all dungeons with very minor differences. And the “farm” part also somehow requires too much attention. Followers manage to shit all over the place even if there are top toilets and a station for cleaning up shit after themselves … I didn’t count but It feels like I spent way more then an hour just just cleaning shit after the followers. That was ruining the fun a lot. I would probably disappointed by the game if it wasn’t a SG win (if I bought it by myself) 6/10

The Entropy Centre: Great game for Portal fans. I was pleased that devs managed to make the game dynamic due to interruptions between puzzles in the form of “RUN EVERYTHING IS FALLING” and “a walking simulator” parts. I liked the story: it cannot be called original, but it is presented very nicely. The characters and voice acting are nice too. Of the minuses, I’ll only note the physics of the main character - it is really strange and some moments it was really hard to land MC where necessary. The puzzles in the game are good, not too difficult, but you need to use your head. All solutions can be found on your own, without any hints. Well, actually there are hints within a game: the more difficult level is the more hints from the game you can find: some hints with lighting, some with geometry… On some levels you actually can even find drawn squares where to put platforms. Devs made it doable to beat the game without the need to go for tips on internet :) 8/10

Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse: This is the second game in the series that I have played. The first one was Shantae: Half-Genie Hero Ultimate Edition, which was released in 2016. I enjoyed it a lot. I had some fears that I won’t enjoy Pirate’s Curse as it not only was released earlier, in 2014, but really has less resolution pixel graphics. The fears were unfounded. Game looks and feels pretty nice and I had no complaints about either the gameplay itself or the graphic component.
I have completed the main game for 100% (found all the collectables and all story related stuff). But I’m not sure I will ever want to complete the whole game. It was an enjoyable experience overall. 7/10

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