January Update

I joined the masses and created an ABC Challenge list this month. I decided the list would be made completely from my SG Wins. So far I have completed the following games:

Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden
Blood Knights
Dark Arcana: The Carnival
Her Story
Legend of the Skyfish
Serafina’s Crown
Tibetan Quest: Beyond the World’s End

I also completed – aka let run for all achievements while I had better things to do– the following:

Run Away
Achievement Extreme
Achievement Begin
Achievement Overdose
Achievement Clicker
Achievement Cromulent
Bold New World
Sisters in a Hotel
Trashville
Zombie Boom
The First Spark
Universe in Fire

So I completed 7 legit games this month and hope to complete about the same in February. Her Story was unlike anything I have played before and enjoyed it and Serafina’s Crown was one of the better visual novels I’ve come across.

I haven’t posted in the last two challenges since I have been dealing with some heath issues as you may have seen in my SG thread. I have been playing games tho and managed to complete the following.

Empress of the Deep

SG Wins
fault - milestone one
fault - milestone two
NEKOPARA Vol. 0
Poker Pretty Girls Battle: Texas Hold’em
Darkarta: A Broken Heart’s Quest Standard Edition
Last Day of June

I really recommend the Last Day of June if you enjoy games like To the Moon.

I will try to complete the following unfinished games for this month’s challenge:
Anna’s Quest
Blackguards
Chaos on Deponia
Hero of the Kingdom
Nightmares from the Deep: The Cursed Heart
The Wolf Among Us

May was multiplayer month but I rarely play those type of games so I decided to focus on some SG Wins instead.

Stay! Stay! Democratic People’s Republic of Korea!
This is a good game for a laugh and not a standard VN. There are no nude or sex scenes as it is all about the comedy and depending on your choices a very gruesome end lol.

Black Rainbow
It’s an ok point and click game. I was disappointed in the lack of hidden object mini games.Puzzle Quest

Hospital Tycoon
I really didn’t find this game enjoyable due to the glitches I kept having while playing. It plays out soap opera style scenarios while also needing you to complete tasks to progress.

Playing History The Plague
I really enjoyed this game and loved learning more about the Plague. The graphics were cute enough that even my son sat with me to play the whole game.

Playing History The Vikings
I also really enjoyed this history game as well. This game was a little more tedious to play since they added rotating camera and it made it harder to spot things but still worth a play thru. I have to agree with the others tho that defeating Lothar is ridiculously hard so I missed that achievement.

Not bad knocking out 5 SG Wins and I look forward to June’s theme.

February Update

I unfortunately haven’t completed any games this month as real life got in the way. I thought the biggest hurdle would be sadness since this month would have been my mom’s 58th birthday had she not died last summer. Apparently that wasn’t enough because my dad had to be rushed to the hospital this month and came close to dieing. As it is he has been diagnosed with a host of problems and probably won’t make it another year. On a good note tho we did visit my in-laws and got to enjoy a day at the beach and our first Mardi Gras parade which the kids loved. I’m hopeful that next month will be much better.

On a side note for those interested…I ended my last month post stating I was taking my two boys to see Monster Truck in theaters. My sister met me there with her two kids and my biggest worry was that my youngest would get too fussy and I had to step out. Turns out there are worse things than crying lol. Around the last 20 minutes of the movie my youngest threw up all over himself and me…I cleaned us up the best I could and we finished the movie wet and smelly ugh…

January Update

I’m going to keep this one short as I’m short on time. My nephew is coming over and spending the night so will have a house full of 3 boys under 5. If all goes well I’m taking them to see Monster Truck tomorrow…really depends on my youngest lol.

I managed to complete 13 short games in December so I figured I would tackle at least 1 more time consuming game this month and chose Trails in the Sky FC.

Trails in the Sky
It was time consuming and a little tedious if you want all the achievement…beware it ends on a major cliff hanger. I don’t own the second one so I will have to wait for a good sale to see how the story ends.

Birds Story
This was a nice story but not as good as To the Moon

Among the Heavens
Pretty much a Diner Dash type game.

Games I Started but haven’t Completed…Trails took to much time and I may have been distracted by FF XV Carinval Event lol
Bastion
Broken Age

If interested in screenshots for Trails checkout my steam profile. Now I have to go mentally prepare for the craziness that a house full of boys brings lol.

This will be my last post for the year.

I joined back in October when I wanted help/encouragement to complete more games. October and November had me completing 5 games while packing/moving. So for December I was ready to make more of an effort and join the monthly theme.

I managed to complete 13 games (3 SG Wins)!

Belladonna (won on SG)
Nice point and click game with an interesting story…tho I wish there was an alternate ending (if you played it I’m sure you know why)

Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons
By far the best game I played this month! I can’t believe I didn’t play this sooner. The graphics and story are just beautiful and I had no problem completing the game with just the keyboard. There was one point where you steer a boat on the river and that gave me trouble. No matter how many times I tried I could not get the boat to steer straight while going forward. One of the whales knocked me totally around and I realized I had perfect control going backwards so I completed the whole river section driving backwards lol. I recommend everyone play this game.

SPOILER DO NOT READ/LOOK UNLESS FINISHED GAME!
I was really shocked when the big brother dies!

Crime Secrets: Crimson Lily
Your basic Hog game

Lost girl`s [diary]
This is a visual novel with no interaction except clicking thru to next dialog…I admit this made it boring to go thru it all because I prefer vn with choices.

Midvinter (SG Win)
This is an SG win that I hadn’t touched and honestly forgotten about. It’s a very short and easy game…think it took less than an hour to play 3x for all the ending achievements..but it was an enjoyable game.

Puzzle Agent
I usually love puzzle games but I was not fond of the puzzles in this game..probably why I didn’t immediately start puzzle agent 2 even tho it ends on a cliffhanger.

Richard & Alice
I enjoyed this depressing game the first time I played it but it gets a little tedious to play multiple times for all the achievements…
SPOILER
I kept hoping one of the ending would include a way to save barney and that she was in jail for killing someone else instead like a polar bear

Sakura Santa (SG Win)
What can I say?….nice short Christmas VN lol

Sam & Max 201: Ice Station Santa
First Sam and Max game I have ever played…so I probably lost out on some of the character connections from previous games. I liked this puzzle type game and will definitely get the rest of the series played sometime in the future.

Secret Santa
I was eager to start up this “fun” looking game…it quickly becomes a pain in the butt. You have to avoid kids, traps, cats, dogs, grannies with shotguns,lasers etc…which sounds easy enough but on some levels I really got frustated with the hitboxes and I admit I ragequit a few times lol. This is not a relaxing game at all to me.

I see now the dev has updated the game concerning the hitboxes so maybe it is easier now lol.

Stargazer Christmas
I haven’t played Stargazer yet but figured I would go ahead and play this one anyway. Its an easy find/collect type game that plays Christmas music in the background. It would not let me take screenshots using F12 and I couldn’t figure out a way around that?

Solitaire Christmas. Match 2 Cards
I know I now hate solitaire lol! There is a certain amount of skill involved but also alot of luck so you have to replay several times just to get a winnable hand. I highly doubt I play any of the other solitaire games in my library for a long time. On the plus side it has some really pretty Christmas steam backgrounds like the one I’m using on my profile at the moment.

Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santa’s Rampage
This was a different experience for me since I don’t normally play first person type games. As a result the beginning was a little rocky and I had a steep learning curve resulting in much longer completion time than most people probably need. I really don’t feel compelled to play the other viscera cleanup titles in my library either.

I Attempted

Santa’s Big Adventures
I started this mario type santa game and I really enjoyed it but encountered a game breaking bug around level 21. As seen in the screenshots the level is missing clouds in the background and you instead see “right click to edit text.” I ignored that and tried to complete the level but walking halfway across the screen triggers a new screen that has an error message and locks up my computer to the point that ctrl/alt/dlt is needed to exit the game. I posted in the forum but haven’t gotten a response back yet.

Xmas Santa Rockstar HD
I attempted this game with a keyboard only. On the levels that only need 3 colors I can easily get 84% accuracy but I’m obviously going to need to either get a guitar or rekey the keyboard to play 3+ note levels. I really enjoy this game and will come back to it but just didn’t have time to finish it this month.

Well Witcher 2 got sidelined for now as I’m down to less than 2 weeks before we have to be out of our house. Good news tho is that we found a house we like and have started the process to buy it. If all goes well we will have a 14 day gap between being out of this house and being able to move into the new one….14 days in a one room hotel room with two kids (not school age), limited tv channels, and no computer….oh the joy lol.

I have managed to take a few breaks between packing and have completed Message Quest 100%. I found the game amusing and the fights were different enough to be interesting. I had to replay the into because I missed that second hidden princess lol. I also finished Hercules II 91%. I managed to beat the dev record one time but getting the 10 times achievement will be something I come back too…of course that means I miss the achievement for getting all achievement too.

I have started Hercules III and will probably start Hercules IV after I complete it to just get the whole series completed. I see they have beat the dev 10x too…ugh.

Thanks for letting me join to help encourage me to not only play games but to actually finish them. I started organizing my games into categories like rpg, puzzle, strategy, etc. I have two kids who need my attention so most of the time I leave games running days at time so when I do have time to play I’m not wasting time getting the game to load etc…as result my play times are never accurate. I recently realized during the day it is easier to play what I call a coffee break style game and play more involved games at night after kids have gone to bed. This strategy seems to be working great so far. I finished Mind Snare’s:Alice’s Journey and 100% 12 Labours of Hercules while finally finishing The Witcher! I’m currently playing 12 Labours of Hercules II while playing Witcher II…I will not feel guilty now when I finally pick up Witcher III lol.