October 2017 - January 2018

• Legends of Eisenwald
  

  106 hours playtime

  45 of 45 achievements

• Pony Island
  

  4 hours playtime

  20 of 20 achievements

• Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Case of the Mystified Murderess
  

  2 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Borderlands
  

  71 hours playtime

  57 of 80 achievements

• Crysis Warhead
  

  8 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Her Story
  

  4 hours playtime

  13 of 13 achievements

• Maize
  

  4 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Tiny Echo
  

  2 hours playtime

  6 of 6 achievements

• The Last Time
  

  86 minutes playtime

  no achievements

• Bayou Island - Point and Click Adventure
  

  50 minutes playtime

  no achievements

• Warmachine Tactics
  

  76 hours playtime

  92 of 121 achievements

• Sam & Max: Season Two
  

  3 hours playtime

  no achievements

Back with an update after 4 months. This time two of the games took most of my game playing time, so the amount of games beaten isn’t that impressive for 4 months.

Most of the games I beat were SG wins. Only Crysis: Warhead and Warmachine Tactics are not won from SG.

Overall I played less than I played in 2017 on average I guess and I think 2018 will be a more quieter year for me gaming wise as I will be probably wrapping up my PhD and probably going to find some work after PhD. Not to mention trying to record more music material.

I didn’t make exact statistics, but counting up the games it seems I beat around 50 games in 2017 (54 if I did not make any mistakes counting the games). Overall % of games beaten from backlog is around 50% and the amount of games beaten that are won from SG are around 40%.

October

Legends of Eisenwald this is TBS game I’ve had my eye on for a long long time ago. I think I spotted when it came out and was in early access 3-4 years ago. Was really excited with the game and spent a lot of time on it. Was very enjoyable to get all the achievements as well. I have to say that the story, the side missions and the amount of content in the single player surprised me. Although it is a little rough in the graphics side and some of the mechanics can be annoying playing it for hours and hours (can’t transfer troops from castles to castles or hire them without being present at the castle) overall I have to say it is a really good game.

Pony Island This games has been recommended countless times and I have to say that I loved it. I don’t want to describe this game at all or I will give something away, it’s something different.

Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Case of the Mystified Murderess Not really something that would I recommend to everyone, but it is short and interesting detective game. Have to say that between other games this was a refreshing experience.

November

Borderlands I don’t know if this is unpopular opinion, but this games is mixed feelings for me. It had it’s moments of fun and humor, but overall it was a tedious and somewhat anticlimactic experience. I might think it’s because I tend to analyze all the options and try out all sorts of layouts by spent time over marginally different weapon combinations. The story didn’t in the end impress me all that much as well. I even felt that some of the DLC was better or interesting (the DLC’s had no fast travel which was horrible of course).

December

Crysis Warhead Since I played Crysis some time before this I knew what this games was and what to expect. Solid FPS nothing too remarkable in this day and age, but it’s still fun (especially on hard).

Her Story This is another indie game I have seen being recommended and which I enjoyed a lot again. As a game it is again very refreshing and different. Also really like the acting and the story of the game. Each person has a different experience with this game. Also like the music and sound effects emphasizing different emotions in a rather quiet and calm game.

Maize To my surprise this game had much much more content and depth than I thought from first glance. I thought it would be some artsy walking simulator/puzzle game. Turned out to be a very humors game filled with interesting characters, dialog and backstory (if you read and explore everything of course). The game is poorly optimized, but other than that it’s a good game.

Tiny Echo Short beautiful point and click game with original art, music and setting. Reminded me at times samorost. Not much depth, but for a short game it is very lovely.

The Last Time Another surprise. This game’s simplicity and pixel art were something that tricked me into thinking it is a fairly simple game. Instead it is a well executed game with great story and pacing. Definitely recommend to indie point and click fans.

Bayou Island - Point and Click Adventure It’s pretty average quality. Story and everything in this game is average. Would not recommend it.

January

Sam & Max: Season Two The last season I had to beat from the Sam & Max telltale games. While the first season was a bit rough and was excused because it was the first. The second season had a couple of episodes with some not so fun storylines that dragged a bit, but overall they have great humor and some of the puzzles are really hard to figure out right away.

Warmachine Tactics I revisited the game because a new single player campaign came out (Dark Seduction). This campaign is shorter than the original, but has much better story and I would recommend playing it instead. The game itself I wouldn’t recommend unless you are really really into TBS games. There are a lot of rough stuff in this games that hasn’t been polished and has low score on steam (it’s not THAT bad).

July 2017 - September 2017

• Mountain
  

  90 hours playtime

  29 of 31 achievements

• The Descendant
  

  10 hours playtime

  50 of 50 achievements

• FOTONICA
  

  8 hours playtime

  18 of 20 achievements

• Bone: The Great Cow Race
  

  3 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Bone: Out from Boneville
  

  2 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Into The Gloom
  

  2 hours playtime

  no achievements

• The Tale of Doris and the Dragon - Episode 1
  

  2 hours playtime

  12 of 12 achievements

• Pilot Brothers
  

  86 minutes playtime

  no achievements

• Telltale Texas Hold'Em
  

  44 minutes playtime

  no achievements

• The Grandfather
  

  31 minutes playtime

  no achievements

• DOOM
  

  81 hours playtime

  54 of 54 achievements

• Belladonna
  

  4 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Type:Rider
  

  4 hours playtime

  11 of 12 achievements

• Polarity
  

  3 hours playtime

  10 of 10 achievements

• The Pit And The Pendulum
  

  3 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Wooden Floor
  

  2 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Batman: Arkham Knight
  

  86 hours playtime

  103 of 113 achievements

• Samorost 3
  

  6 hours playtime

  30 of 30 achievements

• Reversion - The Meeting
  

  3 hours playtime

  25 of 25 achievements

• Sam & Max: Season One
  

  2 hours playtime

  no achievements

• The Old City: Leviathan
  

  72 minutes playtime

  no achievements

I’m actually a bit surprised that I was able to beat this many games in the summer as I am usually busy with yard work and other real life activities, but I guess it is because I played a lot of short games in these months. I finally beat all the games in my attack list and now have constructed a new one.

Most of the games I beat were SG wins. Only Samorost 3 is not won on SG.

July:

Mountain is a simulator game and is a bit artsy. I’ve had this game for a long time in my library, but I noticed that recently got achievements so I got more interested in it. The game itself is interesting concept, but there isn’t much to do or go into depth. ATTENTION achievement hunters, some of the achievements in the game are amazingly hard to get, for example one requires you to play the game for over 800 hours (real life hours). I was able to get most of the achievements, but didn’t bother with the remaining.

The Descendant this is basically a Telltale like interactive story (walking dead etc). It’s pretty solid, but it is not close to the level of the best Telltale titles although, it is better or same level as some Telltale titles (game of thrones). So if your out of Telltale games and looking for more this can be a fine snack in between.

Fotonica I’ve had this again long in my library an earlier SG win. The game is fun, however if you want the achievements you gotta be pretty skilled or play for a longer time. It’s not really my type of game so that kind of explains why I might suck at it. Overall the visuals, gameplay and music all make this a solid title.

Bone: The Great Cow Race and Bone: Out from Boneville Telltale’s second and third games if I’m not mistaken. If you really like Telltale then you should play these. Other than that they are pretty dated and not impressive. The humor is good though.

Telltale Texas Hold’Em Telltale’s first ever game if i’m not mistake. Same description as for the previous two - dated, not impressive, good humor.

Pilot Brothers This is an abstract and nonsensical old-school point and click that is charming if you are familiar with the culture of the eastern block. Growing up with cartoons movies from this region this works really nice in the sense of nostalgia, but without that I’m not sure if I dare to recommend it.

The Tale of Doris and the Dragon - Episode 1 This was one of the biggest surprises in the list. It’s a very charming old-school style point and click game. It’s not frustrating in terms of puzzles and I really really liked the voice acting, characters and humor. I look forward to the next episodes.

The Grandfather It’s a bit artsy and obscure (half of the time I didn’t know what I am doing or what is going on). It’s very disturbing and gets in your head for some time. If your into that then worth playing.

Into The Gloom I play games usually without not knowing what I am getting into, makes it even more fun not to know what awaits me. I didn’t know it was a horror title and I thought it is a walking simulator. Boy was I wrong. For a game that hasn’t going much on in the graphical or effects wise scared me a lot and is truly a disturbing game spoilers: (if you play this also check the alternative endings, it’s fucked up :) )

August:

DOOM it is highly regarded and I get why. Finding FPS games that are solid throughout the game and have decent story isn’t easy, at least in my opinion. I recommend playing this on hard, it’s not that hard game. It was so fun that I gladly went ahead and got all the achievements. Tried the multiplayer and liked that also, most of the hours are in the multiplayer. 30 hours vs 50 hours I think.

Belladonna a fine point and click game. The end seemed a bit rushed and actually liked everything except the very ending actions. Nothing special.

Type:Rider an earlier SG win as well. Reading about the history of typography really was interesting (no, I’m not kidding). I never regarded this as art or something special, because nowadays everything is done quickly in computers. Thinking back how some style of typography was a fashionable seems really interesting. The itself is a puzzle platformer type - not very hard (I suck at these games :) )

Polarity I’ve had this for a long time as well. It’s a enjoyable Portal like puzzle game, it’s really my kind of game. I didn’t find it very difficult and getting all the achievement wasn’t really a hassle.

The Pit And The Pendulum Obscure, short and dark point and click. It’s not that disturbing as the grandfather, but it’s still pretty weird. It really isn’t that special, play it only if you like Edgar Allan Poe.

Wooden Floor Horror walking simulator. I got bored by this games several times and apart from one part of the game it really isn’t anything special or note worthy.

September:

Batman: Arkham Knight I finally got to this title and have beaten all four of the Batman games (asylum, city, origins and knight). None of the batman games have disappointed me and this was no exception. I had a lot of with it. I didn’t read much into this one before and when I started playing it seemed I had stumbled upon GTA: Batman or Need for Speed: Batman as the use of the batmobile is ridiculous :) But I soon got used to it and started to enjoy those parts too (I don’t playing racing games at all or vehicle games).

Samorost 3 I’ve played the Samorost games way way back when they were flash games (don’t remember when but I think I it might even be like 10 years ago). Anyway, I wasn’t planning on playing this, but someone from SG gave me this (I’m pretty sure it was Dogmas, but she deleted all evidence and when I asked about it she wouldn’t answer clearly :) Anyway thanks again for the game) key out of the blue cause I had it on my wishlist. This is a very warm and cute game. It’s much longer with more content than the previous ones and might have some parts of the game that are a bit frustrating as the directions in the game are as pictures and made up languages. Overall I recommend this to any point and click fan (except if you like rich dialog :D ). The main characters way of saying “yes” stuck with me - it sounds like something like “joo joo” and I started using this as it is kind of similar to finnish.

Reversion - The Meeting played the first one when it was free a while back. It’s low quality average point and click. Nothing special at all.

Sam & Max: Season One I enjoy Telltale games and I like Sam & Max from way way back when I played Sam & Max hit the road, so naturally I enjoyed playing this. It’s early Telltale title so don’t expect the same polish as the newer titles (even during the season the games became more polished).

The Old City: Leviathan A philosophical walking simulator. Some parts of the game are gorgeous and the setting is very interesting. The story really requires you to think and making notes might help. I had my theory, but I ended up reading more about it online.

Closing notes:

Oh and also we did a new music video (it’s experimental as it is shot in one evening with zero budget) where you can actually see me in person (playing the keyboards).

In the last post I said I was going to post in 2-4 months. So 4 months has passed from my last post and here is my progress from March 2017 - June 2017:

• The Witness
  

  58 hours playtime

  2 of 2 achievements

• Technobabylon
  

  16 hours playtime

  40 of 40 achievements

• Armello
  

  74 hours playtime

  50 of 50 achievements

• Governor of Poker 2: Premium Edition
  

  11 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Voyage: Journey to the Moon
  

  8 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Leaving Lyndow
  

  2 hours playtime

  7 of 7 achievements

• Refunct
  

  86 minutes playtime

  4 of 6 achievements

• Grim Fandango Remastered
  

  15 hours playtime

  47 of 47 achievements

• Bulletstorm
  

  10 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Richard & Alice
  

  4 hours playtime

  21 of 21 achievements

• The Charnel House Trilogy
  

  3 hours playtime

  18 of 18 achievements

• Mirrored - Chapter 1
  

  2 hours playtime

  6 of 6 achievements

• Batman: Arkham Origins
  

  57 hours playtime

  42 of 60 achievements

• XCOM 2
  

  57 hours playtime

  61 of 80 achievements

• Nightmares from the Deep 3: Davy Jones
  

  5 hours playtime

  32 of 32 achievements

• Nightmares from the Deep 2: The Siren's Call
  

  6 hours playtime

  29 of 29 achievements

• Rocksmith 2014
  

  115 hours playtime

  47 of 47 achievements

My new approach to beating my backlog is to try to play 2 bigger games per month which have 10+ hours of gameplay and try to fit in 1-5 games that have less than 10 hours of gameplay.

Most of the games I beat were SG wins. Only Arkham Origins and Rocksmith 2014 are not won there. Rocksmith 2014 is in the list because I got the last achievement finally. I have been playing it for a much longer time and will continue as well :). Arkham Origins I played it because I won Arkham Knight on SG and wanted to play that before playing Arkham Knight. It is a good game like the previous Batman games.

I had a lot of good games in these months. I wouldn’t say that any of them were bad, but the games that I liked the most were The Witness, Technobabylon, Armello, Bulletstorm and XCOM2.

With Technobabylon I had high expectations as I like everything that has been published/made by Wadjet Eye games and this one delivered as well. The story, the characters, the puzzles and the pacing of the game - everything was great.

The Witness is an interesting game as it is kind of like Talos Principle in the sense of good puzzles and world exploration, but it is a bit more vague and abstract and would say is more of an art piece than a coherent well polished game. But I really liked it and spend a lot of hours in it. The most challenging was getting the second achievement. Not going to spoil it, but after I got it I felt like Thom Yorke in this gif:

Armello = cards+turn-based strategy. It is a combination that is right down my alley. It took quite some time to get all the achievements and it was very satisfying to getting them (I big thanks to Dogmas who helped me out in getting one of the achievements).

Bulletstorm FPS games are usually okaish and there aren’t many that stand out. While the story of the games is not good in my opinion the gameplay is very fun with different in game combinations you can pull off. The different types of enemies, weapons and combinations is very fresh until the end of the game. This game is also plagued with the same problem that many FPS games suffer: Normal difficulty is too easy from the middle of the game and with the hard difficulty some parts in the beginning of the game are a bit too hard.

XCOM2 While it has performance issues and some balance issues (I’m looking at you alien hunter DLC). It is a very enjoyable TBS game as well like the first one. I’ll probably write about this games once more after I play it with the upcoming expansion. I played it through once and it is counted as beaten, but I will revisit this in the future.

Closing notes:
I didn’t bring out Grim Fandago as this was not my first time playing it. I played it with my older brother in my childhood and it has some serious nostalgia attached to it and I’m not very objective on this title :) It is highly valued games if you are into point and clicks.

The biggest surprise was Charnel House Trilogy which turned out to be a very solid point and click game. Interesting characters, story and gameplay. Very similar to Wadjet Eye games (Dave Gilbert from WEG was actually involved with this game). The only problem with this one is that it is very short and leaves a lot of open ends. Will look forward to the sequel.

Oh and today is my SG cake day check it out here

I have been lazy to post here, but I have silently updated my progress on the site. I have been buzy in real life and gaming time has decreased (story is at the end of the post if you are interested).

I have been going through a lot of steamgifts wins and also some older stuff trying to get more achievements (worms revolution, frontline tactics, rising strom/RO2 and portal). I have also updated my attack list with the games I will be playing in the coming months. Also, made a handy list of SG wins that take about 5 hours or less to beat. The list is very useful if you want to pick something up for a evening or the weekend and want to get it finished and now spend time looking through your entire library of games.

Anyway, here is my progress from November 2016 - February 2017 (I’m thinking of making it a habit to post in 2-4 months):

• Circuits
  

  6 hours playtime

  15 of 15 achievements

• Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition
  

  31 hours playtime

  53 of 57 achievements

• Two Digits
  

  4 hours playtime

  13 of 13 achievements

• Through Abandoned 2. The Forest
  

  3 hours playtime

  9 of 9 achievements

• Worms Revolution
  

  46 hours playtime

  27 of 34 achievements

• Subject 13
  

  7 hours playtime

  7 of 8 achievements

</li>
• Breach & Clear
  

  37 hours playtime

  58 of 64 achievements

• Proteus
  

  81 minutes playtime

  no achievements

• Militia
  

  21 hours playtime

  14 of 14 achievements

• Tick Tock Isle
  

  2 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Seasons after Fall
  

  7 hours playtime

  21 of 21 achievements

• Supreme League of Patriots Issue 2: Patriot Frames
  

  3 hours playtime

  21 of 21 achievements

• Supreme League of Patriots Issue 3: Ice Cold in Ellis
  

  5 hours playtime

  22 of 22 achievements

• Supreme League of Patriots Issue 1: A Patriot Is Born
  

  4 hours playtime

  35 of 35 achievements

• Frontline Tactics
  

  41 hours playtime

  21 of 23 achievements

• Rising Storm/Red Orchestra 2 Multiplayer
  

  82 hours playtime

  72 of 140 achievements

• Portal
  

  28 hours playtime

  15 of 15 achievements

Here is the story if interested:

Next to my daily job and stuff I also play music and write music. We decided (actually I pushed it :) ) to record and enter a song to the biggest song contest in our country. The winner gets to the Eurovision, but it is treated as not a competition for Eurovision, but as a competition for finding our song (as in our song in the country). All the big names and artist that actually make money with money enter this and a lot of them don’t make it past the initial stage. Basically of all the songs 20 songs are picked by judges and it turned out that our song was picked as well. As a totally no-name band that hasn’t functioned in 5 years it was quite a feat. So anyway getting picked means that you have to perform your song in various places, go to interviews, write up interviews and to top it off you have to go to the national TV station and perform your song on stage (vocals are live only) with background videos and your stage show concept (which you have to come up with). It’s all been cool and worth it, but just time consuming :)

We didn’t make it into the finals, but it was expected as we are pretty unknown still, but it has been a great experience :)

If anyone is interested you can listen and watch our video here (it has a little bit of humor in it)

October roundup
Well I just joined the BLAEO community this month and it happened to be one of my busiest months of late, so progress was slow.

Working on playing Crysis through then moving on to my attack list