Another Batch

I played some more games from my SteamGifts backlog:

Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box
Why is it that most racing games made after the early 00’s have crap controls? There’s a lot I enjoyed about Burnout Paradise, like the tracks, the game modes and the music, but I feel like it’s all offset by the lackluster controls. Similar to other racing games where drift is a significant part of the gameplay, cars in Burnout Paradise feel like they’re gliding on the road, not driving on it.

Audiosurf
I wish Audiosurf had less of an emphasis on avoiding blocks, as I find that mechanic distracts from the rhythm in a lot of songs. Another downside is the game plays local files only, you can’t stream from Spotify/Soundcloud/whatever, which is how I usually listen to music nowadays, but luckily I still had some local music to play, and I had quite a bit of fun with Audiosurf.

Poker Night at the Inventory
Da, iz gud game.

Over The Hills And Far Away
A short and sweet visual novel set during the American War of Independence.

Shan Gui
Ignoring the real-life drama around it, I really enjoyed Shan Gui, and it was the perfect game to cheer me up after the previous visual novel I played.

Wall of Shame

These are games I didn’t play much of, either because I’ve gotten sick of them or for other reasons:

Numba Deluxe
I was hoping for this to be a math game, but it’s actually just a simple puzzle game where you arrange numbers in various sequences.

Takedown: Red Sabre
A generic Rainbow Six clone.

Insurgency
The game would drop the fps to unplayable levels shortly after loading a map. I’ve searched about the issue online, but haven’t found a solution.

Killing Floor
The worst game on this list, by far. People used to rave about Killing Floor, often comparing it to Left 4 Dead, and I don’t know what those people were smoking, but I think even having the two titles in the same sentence is absurd. It looks terrible, there’s a bug that turns the audio into 8-bit chiptunes, and the levels and enemies are a messy hodge podge devoid of coherence or creativity.

And with that, there’s only one game left to play from my SteamGifts backlog: Guns of Icarus Online. I don’t even know if the game still has a playerbase. Maybe others have it in their backlog as well? One way or another, I’m getting my Steam trading cards..

Long Time No See

Greetings! It’s been 2 years since I last posted an update here. Between then and now, I’ve gone through a name change, and more importantly, I’ve beaten a lot of games from my backlog. Here’s a recap of what I’ve played, along with my brief impression about each game.

Section 8: Prejudice
MEH. People call this a Halo ripoff but that’s true only in the most superficial sense. It was a competent shooter, but had zero charm.

Lone Survivor: The Director’s Cut
I thought it had a lot going for it, but LS didn’t engage me for some reason.

Zeno Clash 2
I was thoroughly impressed by the uncanny world of ZC2. The conclusion of the story could’ve used some work though.

Red Faction: Armageddon
While I would throw the cliched characters and story straight into a fire, I thought the gameplay was surprisingly fun!

Metro 2033
I really wish I could’ve done a pacifist run of this, but the game forces you into combat at various points.

Serious Sam Classics: Revolution
It was fun for a while, but it got really tiresome shooting waves of the same monsters over and over again.

Just Cause
A mediocre GTA clone that doesn’t play well on modern hardware.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
I really enjoyed exploring Skyrim. I just wish the game had better mechanics for playing stealth.

STAR WARS Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
Playing this with a controller was very awkward. It’s hard to believe Jedi Outcast came out on consoles back in the day.

The Ship
I think this is supposed to be an extended tutorial for the MP version of the game. It was short, so at least it didn’t overstay its welcome.

Darksiders Warmastered Edition
I had very low expectations of Darksiders and it exceeded them by quite a lot. The combat was a lot of fun.

Just Cause 2
It was light years ahead of the original game.

Abyss Odyssey
I hated the combat in AO so much that it made beating the game feel like some big accomplishment, so there’s that.

Rome: Total War
I loved RTW for the first 50 hours, but by hour 70, I was starting to feel its length. By hour 90, I was learning to use the console..

Dead Space
I was impressed by how well DS held up. Who knew cutting necromorphs to pieces would be so much fun.

Super Meat Boy
F^&K. THIS. GAME.

Braid
From the start screen to the end, Braid was an amazing experience.

LIMBO
I thought some of the visuals were neat, but that’s about it.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP
A weird little game originally designed for touchscreen displays. The boss battles were epic af.

Psychonauts
I had mixed feelings for the first half of the game, and then it turned into one of the most creative and funny games I’ve ever played.

Gone Home
A bug would reset my progress, so I had to skip journal pages and rush to the end. I loved GH and I wish I could’ve played it more.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent
An overly vague story with an unsympathetic antagonist, and a protagonist so evil that his redemption seemed like a joke.

Serious Sam 3: BFE
It played surprisingly well with a controller. Other than that, it was the same Serious Sam as before but with more pixels.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 - Uprising
While it lacked the spectacle of Red Alert 2, it was nonetheless a lot of fun, and the performances were wonderfully campy.

Spitfire’s Backlog - This Update is Augmented

Hello again.

In my previous update, I announced that the next two games I was going to be playing, would be Abyss Odyssey and Zeno Clash 2. That was 2 months ago.. Meanwhile, I’ve been very slowly chipping away at Abyss Odyssey. The reason being that I find it quite unenjoyable. Maybe it’s due to my lack of familiarity with the genre, or maybe it’s due to the horrible controls, but all I know is, I’m not having a whole lot of fun playing it.
It’s a shame, because I was looking forward to playing it, and AO has a lot going for it (interesting lore, beautiful aesthetic), but it’s all for naught, since I dislike the gameplay. Despite that, I’ve made quite a bit of progress, and I hope I’ll be able to finish it soon.

Since Abyss Odyssey has been such a disappointing experience, I felt the need to start playing another game from my backlog to cleanse my pallet. A legendary game, which has eluded me for many years.
The title of this post probably gives it away, but in case you haven’t realized yet, I’m talking about the one and only: Deus Ex.

After the Abyss Odyssey experience, Deus Ex feels like such a breath of fresh air. I’m only on my second mission, but I’m really enjoying it so far.
I’m going for a pacifist playthrough, meaning I’m going to use stealth and non-lethal abilities throughout the game. In other words, I’m not going to kill anyone. JC Denton is a lover, not a fighter ;)
For those of you interested, I’m using the Deus Ex: Revision mod, but with the original soundtrack and the original character models. I’m basically just using the mod to play the game at 1080p 60 fps.

TL;DR: Did not like Abyss Odyssey; Deus Ex is awesome.

Spitfire’s Backlog - Update

Hiya folks.

It’s been around 2 months since I’ve last written an update. In this time, I’ve been slowly progressing through Fairy Fencer F. I’ve been playing it rarely and in small sessions, but 2 days ago I finally beat it! For anyone curious, I got the Tiara ending.
Supposedly, the game should take about 25 hours to beat on average, but it took me almost twice that long: 47 hours. I guess I just suck at videogames..
It was a pretty fun game, and it had its moments, but I won’t be playing it again for the other endings - I didn’t like it THAT much.

The next two games I’ll be playing will be Zeno Clash 2 and Abyss Odyssey.
I’ve been waiting to play those two games for a long time now. I think ACE Team is one of the most interesting developers out there, and I can’t wait to get started on playing them.
I’m familiar with the story of the original Zeno Clash (I’ve watched an LP of it a couple of years ago), so It’s not like I’m going blind into the sequel, in case anyone was wondering.
I know Abyss Odyssey has received some pretty mixed reviews, particularly because of the controls, but I hope they’re not so bad that I can’t finish the game. What do you think?

That’s it for now. See ya in the next update! ;)

Spitfire’s Backlog.. in 19 Days: CANCELLED

It’s Day 17 since I’ve started my 19 days challenge, and at this point, I think I can safely say that my challenge has been a complete and resounding.. failure!

The reason is simple: I picked some lengthy games to play but I didn’t give myself enough time to play them - at least not for my playing style and skill.

So what now? Will I just give up? Will I shamefully admit that I’m never going to finish my backlog no matter what?

HELL NO!

I’ve finished Sleeping Dogs, and I’ve made good progress on Fairy Fencer F, and I intend to keep at it!

Originally I gave myself just 19 days because that was how long my Windows installation had before expiring. Since then, however, I’ve learned that Windows is still usable after expiration, so I’ll be able to continue playing my backlog of Windows games until it’s finished - then I’ll uninstall it.
It’s also good because some of my backlog includes games I’ve won on SteamGifts, and not playing them because of an arbitrary reason like that would’ve been unfair to the giveaway creators.

The challenge is over, but the fight continues!

Spitfire’s Backlog.. in 19 Days: Day 6

Sleeping Dogs is DONE

There’s some content in the game that I skipped (mostly mini-games), but I finally finished the main story. I might play a bit more to make sure there’s nothing really noteworthy that I skipped, though I doubt it.
And with that, I think it’s safe to say that Sleeping Dogs.. has been put to sleep.

NEXT UP: Fairy Fencer F

This is the latest game I’ve won on SteamGifts. It’s a humourous JRPG that looks really fun, though being a JRPG, I’m a bit concerned about the length of the game. Hopefully it’ll take me less time to finish than Sleeping Dogs. Looking forward to it :)

Spitfire’s Backlog.. in 19 Days

Greetings!

Over the years I’ve bought/traded/won dozens of games that I’ve postponed playing, but now, thanks to this group. I feel motivated to finally tackle my backlog. However, there’s an added incentive: I have only 19 days left to do it!

Long story short, I’ve recently had to reinstall Windows, and I’m using it in trial mode right now because I haven’t activated it.. and I don’t plan to. That’s because I am going to be moving off of Windows at the end of the trial period. Not going to get into the how and the why, as that’s not the point of the thread.
As of writing, my Windows trial has only 19 days remaining. That’s 19 days in which to play as many Windows games from my backlog as possible.

So, what am i going to be playing?
First and foremost, I want to play games I’ve won on SteamGifts. Of those, the first game I want to finish is Sleeping Dogs.
I’ve had it installed for about a year, and I’ve been playing it on and off, but yesterday I’ve started a new game, and I intend to play it all the way to the end.
I don’t know how long Sleeping Dogs is, but being an open-world game, it might take the bulk of the 19 days by itself.

When Sleeping Dogs is done, I’ll announce the next game I’m going to play.