BLAEO — Backlog Assassins Extraordinaire

Smythe’s profile

Smythe

Strategy

beaten

completed

won't play

Statistics

Steam Stats

Beginning of 2017 - 282 games, 1642 achievements, 27% average game completion rate

Beginning of 2018 - 251 games, 2423 achievements, 34% average game completion rate

Beginning of 2019 - 241 games, 2690 achievements, 33% average game completion rate

Beginning of 2020 - 265 games, 3191 achievements, 35% average game completion rate

Beginning of 2021 - 277 games, 4459 achievements, 40% average game completion rate

Beginning of 2022 - 309 games, 5291 achievements, 43% average game completion rate

Beginning of 2023 - 364 games, 6562 achievements, 48% average game completion rate

Beginning of 2024 - 410 games, 7483 achievements, 49% average game completion rate

Beginning of April - 418 games, 7686 achievements, 49% average game completion rate

BLAEO Stats

Beginning of 2017 - 276 games

13% won't play

39% never played

39% unfinished

6% beaten

3% completed

Beginning of 2018 - 249 games

7% won't play

21% never played

52% unfinished

14% beaten

6% completed

Beginning of 2019 - 237 games

4% won't play

16% never played

57% unfinished

16% beaten

7% completed

Beginning of 2020 - 261 games

3% won't play

14% never played

51% unfinished

23% beaten

9% completed

Beginning of 2021 - 276 games

3% won't play

5% never played

36% unfinished

43% beaten

12% completed

Beginning of 2022 - 310 games

2% won't play

8% never played

30% unfinished

47% beaten

13% completed

Beginning of 2023 - 365 games

2% won't play

9% never played

28% unfinished

46% beaten

15% completed

Beginning of 2024 - 407 games

1% won't play

9% never played

29% unfinished

44% beaten

17% completed

Beginning of April 2024 - 415 games

1% won't play

9% never played

27% unfinished

46% beaten

17% completed

Bear and Breakfast

38 hours playtime

43 of 43 achievements
Clawfish

60 minutes playtime

14 of 14 achievements

Aug-Oct 2024

A tri-monthly post, oh no!
Well, it won’t be regular. I’ll do better for the next one as it’s the end of the year and I need to do a yearly summary. This will be brief though…

Not a lot to report. only two assassinations. Aside from those, I’ve put a lot of time into Hades (around 60 hours at the moment) and quite a bit of time (around 30 hours) into Hardspace Shipbreaker. Hopefully, I’ll be able to include them in a post soon.

I finally hit 50% Average Game Completion Rate on Steam, which seems to have taken forever. I’d like to keep it above 50% but it’s gonna be a difficult task. I guess for any new game I start, I need to get over 50% of achievements. Playing old games and increasing the number of achievements I have will give me a bit of leeway too. Expect a disappointed post in a couple of months when it drops again!

Other than that, the usual. Work, side jobs, and not exercising as much as I should. Visited a beach area in September (not as cold as you’d imagine), and climbed a small mountain.

Steam

Bear and Breakfast

Click to read

I played a demo of this ages back during one of the NextFest events and really enjoyed it. Instantly added to my wishlist.

Something seemed a little different when I played the actual game though. It's difficult to pinpoint as it was so long after the demo. I think it's related to the controls, maybe the additional features made me more aware of the fact that they weren't very intuitive. I still enjoyed the game, but there were a few little other niggly points in addition to the controls that meant it didn't live up to my expectations.

One was that there was seemingly no flexibility in the dialogue/task procedure. For example, at a few points in the game, you find empty buildings and someone gives you the task of clearing out all the garbage in it. You can pick up garbage at any point (it's useful), so I did. This meant a few times I had already cleared out the garbage when I spoke to the character. They still give the same speech for the task though. So, you talk to them, they give you the task, then you immediately talk to them again to indicate you've finished the task. A tiny point, but I'd expect the character to replace that initial explanation and say something like 'looks like you've already cleaned up the building, so...'.

A good bundle game. It's not gonna blow you away, but it's enjoyable. A relaxing management game. Completed.

Clawfish

Click to read

One of those very cheap, simple games that I wishlist and pick up on sale, only this time it was gifted to me.

First person game where you walk around a kind of fishing resort catching fish in claw machines or UFO catchers as they're called here in Japan! Fun, but very short. I beat in in about an hour and I wasn't rushing. Actualyl, I made a mistake and reset my progress at one point too, so it would have been even quicker!

Not much else to say about this. No surprises, if you watch a video preview you'll know exactly what it's about. Fun for a while and completed.

Backlog Additions

A lot this time. Not because I bought a lot of games but because I sorted through old keys and added ones that I intend to play but for some reason hadn’t activated yet. So, 4 games that I already had were added to my library Undungeon - actually I made a mistake activating this, I confused it was a different game :( , Overloop, Cookie Cutter, Citizen Sleeper), I received 3 gifts (Toree 3D, Clawfish, Mining Mechs), I bought 3 games (Jusant, Everafter Falls, Spirit Of The Island) and I had 1 win from SG (Astral Ascent).

Loddlenaut

6 hours playtime

21 of 23 achievements
DYSMANTLE

42 hours playtime

25 of 34 achievements

June-July 2024

Continuing with the bi-monthly posts. Busy for much of June and July but things have finally calmed down a bit now. I actually have a day holiday from work coming up so should be able to game a bit in that time. Hopefully my next post will have more assassinations!

Aside from work, I went on a short trip to Seoul and got sick, which I think was Covid even though my home test was negative. I had no sense of smell or taste for about 5 days, which was very strange.

Steam

Loddlenaut

Click to read

Had my eye on this and when it was bundled recently, it seemed like a good time to pick it up.

Easy going, casual kind of game. Swim around cleaning the ocean. You can upgrade your cleaning gear and invent new things to help you. You also rescue creatures which then go on to procreate and evolve into different varieties. The two remaining achievements I didn't get in this game were filling all areas with the creates and finding all evolutions. I should probably go back and try it at some point, but there are quite a lot of evolutions (which involve feeding the creatures different foods) and I'm not motivated to do it. Pretty fun, glad I didn't pay full price for it though! Beaten.

DYSMANTLE

Click to read

Picked this up on the strength of reviews and because it looked different to any game I already have. Not quite what I expected, but I enjoyed it.

The intro video on Steam and the isometric view of the game somehow made me thing this was more of a crafting RPG that it actually was. It was more of an adventure game. There was crafting, but for the main mission it wasn't that much of a focus and I could get buy just picking things up most of the time and crafting a little. There were times that I needed to make X amount of a certain metal, but much less than I expected.

The game map was absolutely huge and a big part of why I spent so much time on this game. For what I achieved, it wasn't really grindy. The remaining achievements require a lot of collecting and crafting though, which is why I'm not attempting them. Great game on the Steamdeck and I *may* come back to this at some point. Beaten for now though.

Backlog Additions

Additions are Littlewood, Prodigal, and Pureya. I forgot I got Littlewood from a bundle and ended up trading for it, not a big loss but I should really keep better track of my games!

Chants of Sennaar

8 hours playtime

25 of 25 achievements
Nobody Saves the World

23 hours playtime

26 of 41 achievements

April-May 2024

Another 2-month post. Work was and still is very busy, so not much to report. I’m a bit burned out, to be honest. Lots of overtime and not much free time for anything, let alone gaming. So, my normally brief ‘reviews’ are even shorter and don’t have much detail, I’m afraid. This is more keeping up with routine and checking boxes so I don’t have multiple months to write up next time.

Steam

Chants of Sennar

Click to read

I was semi-interested in this and then won/was gifted it. A language-based adventure/puzzle game, I guess.

It's different and kind of fun. I'm starting to think I shouldn't buy puzzle games though, they never really grab me. When I get stuck, I check guides too. With other game genres, I feel I avoid doing that and hold off as long as I can. However, with puzzle games, it feels like you either get it or don't and there isn't much of a 'process' of getting further. Maybe it's just the fact that I can check the answers so easily. There's no easy way in action games, FPS, etc. So, a personality thing I guess.

Interesting, but I won't seek anything similar out and I wouldn't really recommend it to people. 100% and Completed.

Nobody Saves the World

Click to read

Pretty fun roleplaying-adventure game where you play shape-shifting wizard.

Decent story and not too much grinding to beat the main story. I got stuck on a few of the 'challenges' that are part of the game and wasn't really motivated to pursue a lot of the other remaining challenges or achievements. The difficult or grind puts me off. There are a few achievements that require DLC anyway, so no way to get 100%. Fun up to a point and I might come back at a later point for a few more achievements, but it'll be Beaten and 63% for now.

Backlog Additions

Additions are Loddlenaut, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and Hades.

Starfield

121 hours playtime

41 of 50 achievements
Disco Elysium

16 hours playtime

11 of 45 achievements
The Case of the Golden Idol

6 hours playtime

11 of 17 achievements
Froggy's Battle

2 hours playtime

8 of 15 achievements
Eastward

28 hours playtime

17 of 30 achievements
Cult of the Lamb

29 hours playtime

30 of 48 achievements

March 2024

I missed February, whoops!

Not so much that I wasn’t playing games, I just forgot. When I realized around the middle of March, I decided to just wait a couple of weeks and post a bigger update.

I played some big titles and got quite into them. While I didn’t finish many games, I enjoyed the two months of gaming. There were a couple of frustrations though, I’ll explain those as I write about the games themselves. The type of games and my experiences playing them over the last couple of months means I’ve written much more than normal, probably no more insightful than the stuff I usually write though!

Outside of gaming, I used up all my holidays at work that were going to expire so I had quite a few long weekends. I wasn’t very productive, just gaming and lazing around. There was still stuff to do at work, so the 3-4 days I was in the office each week were pretty busy. Hay fever season got into full swing and I’m walking around kind of squinting all the time even with medicine.

February included the NextFest event and so I played quite a few demos.

NextFest Demos

Helskate - Basically a Tony Hawk game with a sword and demons. Pretty fun but I think I enjoy pure skating games more.
Pepper Grinder - Traverse your way through levels by holding a massive drill that lets you dig through materials and collect gems. Easy to play, fun, wishlisted.
Creature Keeper - Monster-taming game. Basic demo with only combat, other elements may make it more appealing to some but didn’t really grab me. Also bleepy and annoying music.
Code Zodiac - Pixel graphics, boss rush game. It’s ok but looks like it might be a bit repetitive. I won’t be following this one but may try it if it pops up in a bundle.
Biomorph - Good graphics, dialogue not as good but not particularly important. A fairly standard metroidvania-platform game but you can morph into the creatures you kill and use their different skills. Something I’d probably play from a bundle, but I’m not sure I’d buy it.
Pacific Drive - I’m sure most people are aware of this already. Looks great, atmospheric music and it really draws you in from the start. Reminds me a little of Control - kind of spooky. I got stuck and didn’t go back to it (or something didn’t trigger based on a video of the demo I watched) but I enjoyed it up to that point! Interested and will be watching this one closely.
Crypt Custodian - Ghibli looking cat with a broom hits things in the afterlife. Adventure game, metroidvania kind of thing. Character is cute but a bit big and bit wooden looking when moving. That aside, it’s fun. Tight controls, nice music. A game I would try from a bundle, but I probably wouldn’t buy it otherwise.
Overmorrow - Your character looks like an asian origami girl with a tail. You have 30 in game days before the game resets itself. I think it’s 3 days in the demo. Billed as ‘a serene, nonviolent, exploration adventure game’. Graphics are so blocky it’s difficult to know what is what on the screen. Water, cliffs, sand, grass, trees, they’re all just blocks of colour. The only way you know which areas you can move through is by trying to walk over everything. I encountered crystals and was told to use magic by pressing buttons. No control over that magic or explanation of what it is. So, the demo involved trying every direction to make my way through to the next screen, pressing my ‘magic buttons’ to see if anything happened then moving onto the next screen. I did not feel serene playing it. Ignored.
Children of the Sun - Another game most people are probably already aware of. Shoot people from a distance and you get (teleported?) to where they were. So, you need to work out if you can see your next target from that position. Points for speed, distance, hitting a moving target, etc. Stylized graphics, violent, simple. A bit too simple, an alright game but it’s not for me.
Rusty’s Retirement - I feel like this should appear in my list of assassinations, but as the demo no longer appears on my Steam account it’s not. Initially looked interesting - idle game that takes up about 20-25% of the bottom of your screen so you can watch videos, surf the net, etc. and click occasionally. So, I saw it as an idle game to play between doing other things rather than something to focus on. Click to plant seeds and build things, the character waters, harvests and converts the crops into biofuel. You can then buy bots to help and other things. What I didn’t know was that the demo has achievements, so I triggered one then felt like I needed to get them all as it probably counts towards my Steam Steam average. This meant I spent about 10 hours on it. No longer interested, it got old fast! I’m back to ignoring all types of idle games.

Steam

Starfield

Click to read

One of the most anticipated releases of 2023. Based on initial reviews, I planned to wait for a deep discount and bug fixes before buying it. I actually won a copy just as the bigger issues were solved. Played a little but it was only during the last month or two that I sunk any significant time into it

I like Bethesda RPGs which means I'm a bit more forgiving than with other publishers. Fallout New Vegas was a big hit for me and is one of the few games I played through more than once. I tried Fallout 3 soon after and it didn't quite hit the mark, no idea why. Maybe it was too similar (graphics, gameplay, story) to FONV and didn't have the same impact. I think I played through Fallout 4 a few times too. I held out on Skyrim for a while as the setting (fantasy, magic) was less appealing. When I finally played it, I enjoyed it but the setting was a major negative for me. Fallout 76 - tbh I haven't played enough. I'm not interested in interacting with other players, so it's basically more of the same isn't it? I should go back to that but the negative reviews have maybe soured my image of the game.

I don't usually write much, so why am I banging on about Bethesda RPGs instead of Starfield itself? Well, basically because it's the same game. FO3, FONV, FO76 are set in the wasteland, Skyrim is more fantasy-based with magic and dragons and stuff, Starfield is futuristic with spaceships and intergalactic travel. Setting aside and a few gameplay elements (V.A.T.S stands out), I see them as the same game. The basic movement, combat, interaction with characters, quest system, etc. is basically the same in my opinion. I liked it in FONV and I like it in Starfield, but the problem is the games are too similar. Don't get me wrong, Starfield looks better than FONV, especially the scenery and cut scenes, but it's not a big enough improvement. There are 13 years between the games. Despite graphical improvements, the characters look flat and glassy-eyed and lifeless. The game is big, but I didn't feel invested in the story or the characters. The number of loading screens adds to this lack of involvement. I have no desire to explore all the 1,000 explorable planets in Starfield. They are too similar and the game offers no incentive to explore them.

As I wrote earlier, I like Bethesda games and I like this because it's a slightly improved Fallout in space. I've spent 121 hours in this game, so of course I like it. There are some stand out missions too, like 'Entangled'. However, it is equally disappointing. if you compare it to a recent game like Cyberpunk 2077, despite the problems that game had on launch, it is a much more complete and polished game than I imagine Starfield can ever be even with patches. It looks modern and impressive. I think of this as a Fallout mod or a good old game that I somehow missed when it was released 6-7 years ago but it is not a good game by today's standards in terms of story, graphics, or (for much of the time) gameplay. This game is like an old pair of slippers. They're comfortable, I enjoy them, but I would not recommend them to other people, get excited about them or choose spend a lot of money on them. Beaten for now. The other achievements I need require grinding and dealing with the base building system which I have 0 interest in. Maybe I'll come back at some point.

Disco Elysium

Click to read

I was interested in this game after seeing a review on the ACG youtube channel. The amount of reading put me off a little though, I often click through long sections of reading in games to get to the gameplay and have very little interest in lore. It stayed on my wishlist though and was bumped up a lot when the Final Cut version was released with voice acting.

Wow, just... WOW! This was unlike any game I've played before. There is nothing technically groundbreaking about the game, but the writing, story development, voice acting, and just the way the world is revealed and the characters are developed as you play is unlike anything I know. I would need to replay it several times and make notes to learn everything about the world it is set in and the political theories that are explained as you play (which is more appealing than it sounds, even to a lazy, lore-avoiding person like me). Even the music is great. Reading about what happened to the creators and development team behind the game, it's sad to think that it's unlikely that there will be another game like this (unless somehow individuals can make it work) but perhaps that will add to the legacy in a way. A single masterpiece. Play this if you have even the slightest interest, I'm sure you won't regret it! I need to replay this a few times to get the other achievements. I might actually do that, but not now. There are other games that I want to play first.

The Golden Idol

Click to read

Another big title. Great reviews, very positive reception and award-winning. From one well-received innovative detective game to another, or so I thought....

I do not understand the hype behind this game. The story is revealed to you as you play through the chapters and is ok, but aside from that I don't see many positives here. It looks like a point-and-click adventure from the 80's and plays a lot like one too but is more limited in that you don't move and are limited to very few screens in each 'chapter' of the game. The puzzles that make up the main part of the game are more like mini-games that you would get in a more substantial title. You click on things around a scene then use the words that appear to complete gap-fill sentences or charts. I'm honestly not sure why this is seen as an innovative game. It feels like a combination of a HOG and a logic puzzle you get in a book ("A is older than B, C lies, C is younger than A, B always tells the truth" kind of thing). If you get stuck, you can brute-force most of the puzzles.

Maybe I am just missing something or it isn't my kind of game but I did not enjoy this at all. Some of the achievements need the DLCs so this is gonna stay beaten.

Froggy's Battle

Click to read

I hadn't heard of this, just stumbled across it while checking Steam reviews. A simple game, cheap and fun.

You are a frog, on a skateboard, skating around a loop on the screen killing enemies that appear. As you progress, you get new skateboarding tricks, weapons, magical abilities, and hats that help you defeat your enemies. That's all there is to it. Watching a short video will reveal everything you need to know. Despite the simplicity of the game, there are skill and time based achievements that I doubt I'll get, so this will stay as beaten, I think.

Eastward

Click to read

Playing this game could be one of the most frustrating gaming experiences I have ever had, it is certainly the most frustrating achievement-related experience.

So, first off. It's a good game. A very good game. It looks great, the story is engaging, the characters are interesting and they have very distinct characters. It's not overly challenging, so you'll likely make steady progress and can beat any of the more difficult sections after a couple of tries. The music is good too. I can't think of many negatives. It is quite long and there are some very long cut scenes, but that's not really a negative. So, why was it frustrating?

I mainly played this on my Steamdeck for about 20-30 minutes at a time over a couple of months while commuting to and from work. I didn't really think about it much at the time, but as I was playing offline, the achievements didn't pop. No biggie, they usually just pop when I connect at home. In the latter stages of the game, I started playing at home. The achievements for these chapters popped but the earlier ones didn't. Okay, so I have to replay those chapters. A bit annoying, but I found out a chapter selection option appears when you complete the main story. Some of those chapters were quite long but it's still doable. So, I go back and play those chapters and the achievements pop. However, none of the other achievements will and there is no way I can get them without starting a completely new game. It seems that with an achievement like 'collect all Xs' you need to be connected to the internet while you collect ALL of them. It's not a case of collecting the last one, there is no tally of the ones I collected offline at all. So, I can't load a chapter with my saved data up to that point and collect the last item, I have to collect all the items while I am connected to the internet. It's a very linear game and I spent over 30 hours on it, so it's gonna stay beaten for now and despite it being a great game, it's left a sour taste!

Cult of the Lamb

Click to read

One more big release. I had to look back in my BLAEO feed to see when I got this, I guess it was from a trade in December.

I'm sure you're already familiar with the game - a roguelike with elements of management/colony simulation. I much preferred the roguelike elements of the game to building my base and taking care of the followers. While it was interesting early on, later on the benefits of having resources and followers seemed to drop off to me. I tended to focus on one thing at a time, either pushing forward with the main part of the game and attempting stages and boss battles, or spending time on my followers and camp to get achievements. There are benefits you can take on each run from a well-developed base but most of the time the time spent on getting them outweighed the actual benefits (IMO). Maybe it was because I was playing the game on normal difficulty, the benefits may be more useful when playing at a higher difficulty.

I started playing in March and at the moment, I consider it 'beaten' as I've beaten what I consider to be the main boss. There are still lots of achievements left though and additional bosses to defeat. I doubt I'll get to 100% of the achievements (time based and skill based achievements), but I will probably play for a little longer and hopefully get a few more. It will stay at beaten though, so I'll add it to that category now.

Backlog Additions

Five additions. I didn’t actually buy any of them (trades, gifts, wins) but still additions to the backlog - Rakuen, Chants of Sennaar, Froggy’s Battle, Slime Rancher, BZZZT.

Rollerdrome

12 hours playtime

15 of 21 achievements
SLUDGE LIFE

7 hours playtime

14 of 14 achievements
Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition

23 hours playtime

38 of 68 achievements
Will You Snail?

6 hours playtime

18 of 30 achievements
Unpacking

4 hours playtime

25 of 25 achievements

January 2024

Happy New Year! Feels a little strange writing that now but this is my first post of the year here.

A decent start to the year, 5 assassinations. Aside from those assassinations, this month I’ve been playing Session, Disco Elysium, Eastward, and Basingstoke. I’m struggling with Basingstoke. I keep replaying the same level trying to make progress but I’m not getting very far! Session recently got achievements, which was a good excuse to go back and relearn the controls. The other two, I’m enjoying a lot but haven’t dedicated a lot of time to yet.

What news do I have…hmmm, not much. Work has quietened down a lot. There’ll be things to do for the next month or two but it won’t be crazy busy for a while (I hope!). I did about 25 hours of an online side job last week in addition to my regular work which drove me a bit crazy. An intense 5 days or so, but it’s done now and won’t come around again for a while.

Steam

Rollerdrome

Click to read

Loved this one. A ‘sports’ setting, I guess, so not much of a story but there was enough to explain the situation. It looks good and plays well.

There’s a good difficult arc too. I’ve not mastered it enough to get the most difficult achievements, but getting through all the levels took time and it felt like I was improving. I came back to this after a long break and it took me an hour or so to get back into the rhythm of things and relearn the controls. A real ‘yesssss’ moment when I beat the final boss.

Beaten, but I can definitely see myself coming back to this in the future (Once I either 1. beat the backlog or 2. Need a break from other games!). I’ll leave it installed with 71% of achievements for now. As it is, there are a lot of other games I want to play so onwards and upwards!

Sludge Life

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One of those games that I was half interested in based on positive reviews but never enough to buy it. It was recently given away for free (probably because the sequel was released) so I grabbed it.

Very strange but not unpleasant setting to the game. The good things - the music, the concept of graffiti tagging in the game, and the unusual NPCs you meet. The bad things - Not sure if it’s my setup but the screen movement was strange, creating almost a motion sickness feeling. It was better on the Steamdeck than a big screen but still noticeable and offputting. With the climbing mechanic, you can climb some surfaces but not others. The problem is there is no clear indication of what you can and can’t climb. Also, some kind of juvenile humour in there. I probably would’ve appreciated them in my early teens but not so much now.

Overall, ok. It was short enough and I enjoyed it enough to complete it but I have no interest in getting the sequel.

Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition

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I played Metro 2033 back in 2019 and didn’t really enjoy it. The dark setting and slight horror-jump-scare vibe didn’t do it for me. Based on that, I avoided the newer Metro games and had no plan to play anymore. That is until I got my keys mixed up and activated this one by mistake.

Fast forward to… now and I finally decided to take the plunge (I added the game to my 8 years of BLAEO challenge to push myself to play it). The setting and storyline of this game were better for me. A lot of the game is above ground and you don’t have to deal with lights, flares, lighters, etc. as much to find your way around. I’m still not sold, but it was better than I expected.

Beaten and 55% of achievements. I should probably try and get a few more. The DLCs are cheap at the moment and I’ve toyed with the idea of getting those to push the percentage up a little more. There will always be some difficulty-related ones that I won’t get but that might be a way to push my average completion a little higher. An added annoyance is that the Enhanced Edition was an addition rather than a replacement for the vanilla version of the game and achievements gained in one don’t pop in the other. So… I still have the standard version of the game sitting at 0 hours and 0%!

Will You Snail

Click to read

Why do I continue to buy games that I am not good at? A precision platformer. There is nothing precise about my gaming and speedrunning is not something I could do at my peak, let alone when I’m over 40! Thankfully there are difficulty settings and I could adjust them to get past the more difficult levels without too much stress.

Pretty simple game, fun, with lots of secrets and extra things to go for once you beat the main story. I won’t be going for those though (not just yet, anyway). Beaten for now at 60% of achievements.

Unpacking

Click to read

I’m torn with this. I enjoyed parts of it but other parts were a little frustrating and didn’t really fit into the ‘casual’ and ‘relaxing’ vibe that I expected.

Moving home is supposedly one of the more stressful things you can do in your life. I’ve done it a lot (8 times in my 18 years in Japan, I think!). I quite like it actually, maybe it’s partly because I haven’t hoarded a lot of things. It’s nice finding a new place, planning the layout, deciding where things will live, and changing things around. Kind of a new, exciting start each time.

I got this game thinking it would be similar. It is, to some extent, but there need to be more features in my opinion. You open boxes and put items in your home. The home starts as one room and expands to be a bigger house as you progress through your life. There are a couple of problems. Firstly, it’s not always clear exactly what the things you are unpacking are. They can be quite small and there is no way of identifying them. The game consoles and kitchen appliances in particular threw me. It was also difficult to tell the difference between books, CDs, DVDs, and console games (I’m just guessing that all these were in the game!) but this didn’t matter. Most items can be put pretty much anywhere, so for a lot of items I could just unpack them and just throw them on a shelf. Others have very limited locations that they can be 'correctly' placed in. If you put some items in the ‘wrong’ place, they glow when you try to finish the level as a prompt for you to put them elsewhere. Being able to clearly identify items would help you to put them in the right place first time.

It would be good to have some kind of mechanic to make you more conscious of where things are placed. I’m not sure how, perhaps a ‘practicality’ meter or ‘Feng Shui’ indication of some kind, or a score at the end of the level. I felt like in a lot of levels I would just throw things anywhere and then ‘correct’ the items that the game told me were in the wrong place, which is a lot different to real life.

Backlog Additions

Three additions, not great but as I assassinated 5 games I’m still making progress! Nobody Saves the World, Dinkum, and ICEY.

DAVE THE DIVER

43 hours playtime

43 of 43 achievements
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

22 hours playtime

19 of 29 achievements

December 2023

A pretty short post for the end of the year. I spent most of December playing Dave the Diver. At the end of the month, I finished that then noticed the current 8 years of BLAEO event and so chose 8 games from that period to work on. The games I chose should pop up in the next couple of posts and in the last few days I’ve started on Metro Exodus and Basingstoke.

I’m sure I’ve other snippets of news but my mind is blank right now and as it’s already January 1st, I want to get this post up! So, just a short update. Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Year. Another year of assassinations is ahead. Hopefully, I can get my Steam average achievement to 50% this year.

Steam

Dave the Diver

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Believe the hype, it's a great game! Mainly an adventure and management game. Explore the depths and catch fish before your air runs out. Capture different species of fish and other sealife, upgrade your equipment, then head back to the restaurant and make sushi.

Decent story, pretty relaxing, plenty to do, and generally an all-around fun game. My only minor complaint is some of the puzzles and mini-games weren't great, but these were a minor part of the game as a whole. Oh, and the free dlc that adds an extra element from Dredge wasn't great. If I knew what it added, I probably wouldn't have installed that. I preferred the vanilla game. The event that it triggers is only once a week or something like that, so not a big deal.

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

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I bought this in 2016 and can't remember the last time I played it, but went back to it as part of the current Eight Years of BLAEO event. If you've played the first game, it's more of the same. If you haven't, a difficult top-down shooter. Very violent.

I think I stopped playing this because it's difficult (for me at least). It's still difficult, but I was able to finish the main story and pick up a fair number of achievements. You get a grade for each level and I think I may have got one B-. The majority were C or D grades, so I suck at it! There's no way I'll get all the achievements, so it's just into the beaten pile rather than completed.

Backlog Additions

Just two additions this month, despite the sales - Bear and Breakfast which I’d be interested in since I played a demo in the Steam Nextfest, and Tunguska: The Visitation which I was on the shelf about but won in the Steamgifts Winter event.

Progress in 2023
I missed this summary last year, maybe I’ll go back and add the figures. Since I started using BLAEO I’ve made progress, but not so much in this last year so the figure below isn’t very interesting. A little too much buying and not enough playing! The figures for every year are in my profile section of the site.

Beginning of 2023 - 365 games

2% won't play

9% never played

28% unfinished

46% beaten

15% completed

Beginning of 2024 - 407 games

1% won't play

9% never played

29% unfinished

44% beaten

17% completed

Garden Story

13 hours playtime

19 of 21 achievements
Darksiders Genesis

21 hours playtime

20 of 30 achievements
Batman: Arkham Knight

52 hours playtime

76 of 113 achievements
Doom & Destiny

13 hours playtime

44 of 44 achievements
inbento

78 minutes playtime

15 of 15 achievements
DREDGE

21 hours playtime

40 of 48 achievements

September-November

A long period with no posts again for the usual reason - work being busy. I want to do a separate end-of-year post and should have more time to game in December, so hopefully I can post at the end of this month and break the recent trend of 2-3 month long intervals.

I had a bit of a spending spree recently. A new laptop (no gaming, just everyday stuff away from the office/game room), new TV, new monitor (30% off in Black Friday sales) and some clothes. I’m normally pretty restrained, but felt like splurging a bit!

Not many games were beaten or completed in these 3 months and I got a lot of new ones (-.-;). On the bright side, I enjoyed lots of the games I played. So, time well spent!

Onto this month’s assassinations:

Steam

Garden Story

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Had my eye on this for a while and picked it up in a trade (it appeared in a bundle soon after). It's a cute adventure game. A few 'tricky' bits but nothing really difficult, so quite relaxing to play. I've nothing bad to say about this. It's not gonna blow you away, but this is the kind of game I've been enjoying more and more recently. Easy to drop in for a quick session, plays well on the Deck, a simple but interesting story, and not too long. Basically, the kind of game that helps me to wind down a bit and it's satisfying rather than frustrating.

I have actually completed this and it appears as 100% on Steam but the BLAEO site isn't picking up the last couple of achievements. Hopefully, it will be fixed or miraculously fix itself in the near future.

Darksiders Genesis

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I didn't actually want this game. I made a mistake with keys when trading it and activated it on my own account. I won an earlier Darksiders game on Steamgifts and, while it wasn't 'bad', I wasn't that into it and thought I'd give the series a miss.

I knew what I was in for having played an earlier game. It was pretty much more of the same. I don't remember the ability to switch characters in the other game I played (Darksiders 2, I think) but that's probably my bad memory! Different story, but the graphics and controls were basically the same.Gameplay - hack and slash, fantasy setting, collect lots of things. As with 2, I didn't dislike it. I wasn't really interested in the story but it was engaging enough and the levels were varied enough to keep me playing. Main story is beaten and I got quite a few achievements. The remaining ones are mainly speed and difficulty-based, although there are things I didn't collect. Beaten.

Batman Arkham Knight

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This is the third Batman game I got (along with Batman: Arkham City and Batman: Arkham Asylum). I beat the other two, but these games have a lot of achievements, so 100% is a bit unrealistic for me. I can't really remember getting this. I guess it was in a bundle, a deep discount, or I got a good trade as it's not a game that would be on my wishlist.

The mechanics of this game aren't so different from Darksiders now I think about it, but I enjoyed this more. The story had a lot of different villains in it and was pretty interesting. The DLC wasn't great, but a few parts were quite fun. As with Darksiders, this is a game that's easy to drop into for a while. Depending on my mood, I could try to advance the main story, complete a side mission, or just spend 15 minutes collecting things. So, even if I didn't play for long, I was still picking up an achievemnt or two or could see I was getting closer to one. A lot of skill / time based achievements remain (as with the other Batman games I have) but the main story is done and I have a respectable 67%, so this gets the Beaten tag.

Doom & Destiny

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The turn-based combat RPG and RPG maker tags on this game would normally mean I ignore it, but the 'Overwhelmingly Positive' Steam reviews and seeing the game recommended elsewhere got my attention. It sat low on my wishlist for a while but I picked it up in one of the recent sales.

I liked the story and the writing. There are quite a few sections of the game with typos and strange English (the most annoying one is in the achievements themselves 'Reach Chapetr 3' aghhh!) but I liked the story and humour in the game. Lots of references to other games and pop culture in there. I'm not keen on turn-based combat and this didn't change my opinion about that, but the other elements kept me interested. I used a guide to make sure that I got all the achievements as there are quite a few that are easy to miss. So, a fairly successful gamble based on that 'Overwhelmingly Positive' rating. I'm glad I played it and it's another completed game, but I'm unlikely to pick up anything similar in the near future.

Inbento

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A simple puzzle game that was 80% off in the Steam sale. Place different food in a bento box to match the pattern on the screen. Later on you get different controls to shift multiple sections or to swap food around. Difficult to explain but it's fairly intuative. It looks cute, is challenging and pretty fun overall. The usual thing with puzzle games for me. Simple at the start, becomes tricky, then hard puzzles with genuine feelings of achievement when I complete a level, then finally too much for my tired old brain and I refer to a guide after staring at the screen for ages. A guide assisted 100% and into the Completed pile.

Dredge

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Believe the hype. Dredge is good. Got this in a trade and I was keen to play, so got stuck in pretty much straight away.

A fishing adventure with a dark undercurrent. It's not a 'scary' game, but there is an undercurrent of forboding and expectation that something bad will happen. I think the game instills that feeling very well. Right at the start of the game, I was reluctatnt to head out in the dark even though there was no sign of danger. Just the mood that had been set and the visuals put me off it. Like being a kid again! The end of the story is a little strange, but it doesn't detract from the game as a whole. I enjoyed collecting everything, doing the tasks I was given, and working my way towards the bigger goals. I have 100% in the main game, but the Steam achievements include the DLC achievements too so I' sitting at 83% officiallly. I'm not sure about the DLC, I've read mixed reviews and it doesn't seem to be that much more content so I'm not keen on buying it just yet. Maybe when there is a big sale. Beaten for now.

Backlog Additions

Oh dear, lots of additions. I won Starfield in a competition. Most of the others were from trades but I bought a couple and added Starbound from an old bundle that I forgot about.

Bear and Breakfast, inbento, The Case of the Golden Idol, DREDGE, A Story Beside, DAVE THE DIVER, Will You Snail?, Unpacking, Starbound, Cult of the Lamb, Starfield, Journey to the Savage Planet

Mail Mole

5 hours playtime

25 of 31 achievements
Children of Morta

19 hours playtime

38 of 45 achievements
Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition

47 hours playtime

59 of 59 achievements
Kaze and the Wild Masks

12 hours playtime

11 of 25 achievements
RESTLESS SOUL

7 hours playtime

30 of 30 achievements
Chicken Police

7 hours playtime

31 of 31 achievements
Terror of Hemasaurus

11 hours playtime

30 of 30 achievements

June-August

My longest streak of not posting. I’ve pushed the boundaries of laziness even further. My previous two-month break has been extended to a three-month one. No single reason. A very busy period at work and an 18-day trip to the UK are probably the main reasons. A few other minor things, but I probably should’ve limited it to a two-month gap.

Work - Pretty stressful, to be honest. My sleep and sanity suffered a bit too, but nothing too serious. It’ll be quieter until about mid-September so I can relax a bit. From September things will get crazy again.

UK trip - Not really a holiday, as I was mainly visiting family and friends. There were a few more touristy things thrown in there as my gf came with me. We managed to time the trip as some rail strikes were happening which threw things a little. Thankfully a friend could drive us on the two days that trains were canceled, but that was one more thing to think about! I enjoyed meeting friends and eating a lot! It would be nice to have another trip to a beach resort or something but unlikely anytime soon.

I started writing this mid-August during a week’s holiday from work, which meant I had time to look back at the games and think a bit. I’m back at work as I finish writing it, but not too bad at the moment. Aside from the games listed below, I’ve been playing APICO (relaxing, fun, slow progress), Good Night, Knight (I’m stuck, need to go back to this), Roboquest (Nice for short bursts of gameplay, no achievements), Darksiders Genesis (it’s alright, actually added it to my account by mistake!), Rollerdrome (great fun!), and Garden Story (enjoying this one too and seems to be quite a lot to do).

Onto this month’s assassinations:

Steam

Mail Mole

Click to read

A 3D platformer. It's a simple game but was lots of fun and there are plenty of challenges in there too. I doubt I'll get good enough to do the boss rush or speedrun achievements, so I'm content with Beaten for now. A quick look at a trailer will pretty much reveal all you need to know about this game, no surprises.

Children of Morta

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I didn't finish the DLC but the main story is done. Graphically and with the fantasy setting, this isn't a game I'd normally go for but I tried it on gamepass a while back and was interested enough to pick it up when I could get a good deal.

Tight controls, plenty of additional achievements aside from the main storyline, and great voice acting. That's something I don't really pay much attention to, but it really stood out in this game. Interesting story in there, but tbh I did zone out at times and just waited to get back into the action! I started to grind the DLC a bit, but it seems like it will take me a long time, so Beaten for now and I may come back to it.

Sleeping Dogs

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An open-world gem. The game that the Yakuza series could have been!

So, I should start out by saying I enjoyed Yakuza 0, but it did feel very repetitive. Then I tried another in the series and just couldn't bring myself to keep playing. Now, Sleeping Dogs - yeah, it's a bit old so the graphics are a little dated, but this was the highlight of my gaming in this block. There was a good story at the core of the game, the missions weren't pointless fetch quests (yes, I'm looking at you Yakuza, with your 3-4 go and find toilet paper requests in a row!) and I was always interested and engaged. I mean, 47 hours and 100% for someone with my attention span is surely evidence! The ghosty DLC was weaker, but the Bruce Lee-inspired one was a lot of fun too. If you haven't played it yet, don't let the 2012 release tag put you off and go grab it. Completed.

Kaze and the Wild Masks

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Picked this up on thje strength of reviews. Definitely not from the trailer, which was a very weird style with human actors - kind of like a TV commercial for kids toys.

It was good. I mean, I can see why it got good reviews, but there's nothing particularly.... novel.

It's Sonic really, isn't it? Sonic and a few other platformers mixed up a bit. I'm not particularly good at platformers, but managed to beat the main story in a reasonable amount of time so I guess it's not too difficult. There are more achievements and things to collect but I've had enough! Just didn't really click with me, but I'd recommend it if you like classic platformer action. Beaten.

RESTLESS SOUL

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Played demo of this a while back, I think. It stuck with me, so I was on the lookout. I missed an Alienware (?) giveaway but got it in the end.

A kind of RPG where you play as a ghost trying to get back to the land of the living.

In a lot of my little summaries, I'm pretty vague and just write about games not really clicking with me, getting old, or being repetitive. I'm going to be similarly vague here, but this is one that did click. I just don't know why! I guess a lot of it was the writing and the humour. Corny kind of jokes but they weren't too repetitive. The gameplay was simple and the battles weren't difficult. It was a pretty short game, I just went back to find a few collectibles and get that 100% to make this - Completed.

Chicken Police

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Meh. Not sure what I expected, but this wasn't it. Not much of a game, more of a visual novel.

Again, a game that I got based on the positive reviews. I was still a little hesitant because I thought the anthropomorphic graphics were pretty jarring so this wasn't anything like a priority purchase but I did get it in the end. Dialogue choices seemed like the only real 'gameplay' in this and the story wasn't strong enough to keep me interested. After playing for a while, I knew it wasn't for me and opened up a guide so that I could get most of the achievements in one playthrough and avoid having to go back to it. I did need to replay a few sections but got them all fairly smoothly. Completed and a lesson learned, follow my gut instinct more!

Terror of Hemasaurus

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A homage to the old game Rampage

I enjoyed Super Blood Hockey enough to keep my eye on this release from the same (one person?) developer. Terror of Hemasaurus is Rampage with a few extra elements. You destroy buildings, kick or throw people and cars, attack helicopters and blimps. There's a story tagged onto this (I'm not sure there was much of one in Ramapage) which, while not particularly compelling, explains why you would be smashing things and gives you a bit of motivation. There's an environmental theme int her e too but it's not rubbed in your face and is more of a funny approach. Simple fun, good to get on a sale, and not too challenging to get 100% - Completed.

Backlog Additions

The period June to Aug wasn’t too bad for my library with only a handful of additions. I’ve assassinated some of the additions already and am playing others:

Disco Elysium, Haiku, the Robot, Garden Story, Terror of Hemasaurus, Kaze and the Wild Masks, Rain World

Olija

5 hours playtime

10 of 10 achievements
Spiritfarer

33 hours playtime

28 of 39 achievements
Luna's Fishing Garden

3 hours playtime

14 of 14 achievements
Cozy Grove

68 hours playtime

56 of 70 achievements

April-May

Oops, a two-month period again. I wasn’t even sure which games I was playing in April when I started writing this post! I had to search back in my Steam playtime and work it out. Hopefully, I got them all. I’m not even sure why I didn’t post. I guess I didn’t have much to report on as I still don’t a month later.

So, other happenings. I turned 42 during this two-month period. I didn’t do anything special, a meal with my gf but nothing much else. I kept it on the down-low at work too, so only one person with a good memory remembered and gave me a present. Work has been up and down. Getting up before 6am every day to go to the office isn’t great, but I’m much more productive in the office, the work is better in person, and I’m much more sociable. There has been a lull at work this week, but I’m gonna be busy again from Monday. This busyness and just a general lack of attention for longer games means most of my recent gaming has been on the Steamdeck. Short bursts during my commute or before I go to bed.

Onto this month’s games:

Steam

Olija

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Great game for the Deck. A pixelated adventure game. Slightly strange story about a sailor in a 'mysterious country' with people wearing what looked like Japanese clothing and islands with Japanese names, and a legendary harpoon. It kind of worked though.

The 'very positive' rating on Steam kind of sums it up. There's nothing really groundbreaking there, but it all works well and it's fun to play. Enough of a challenge to be an enjoyable game that you want to keep playing, but 100% in about 5 hours. Good in a sale or a bundle.

Spiritfarer

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I won this in a discord channel's scavenger hunt competition. A game I kind of let pass me by when it was on sale or bundled somewhere but I'm glad I gave it a try.

I'm gonna be honest here. I kind of zoned out a bit in some of the cut scenes. I played kind of a grim reaper type role, helping spirits cross over into another world? Presumable where they would be at peace. Most of these characters seemed to already know me and made reference to things in the past or people we both knew, I think. Yeah, I should pay attention. I know!

It looked great. The ship with buildings on it was fun and kind of novel. All the characters in the game had their own personalities and were very well done. It would be difficult to play the game and not feel anything at all. All the characters reflect on the different kinds of lives they had and are in different emotional states when they finally leave to the other side. So, overall a great game. I played for over 30 hours when I realised the end of the main story was available. I could have continued to try and get a few more achievements, but... I'm sure you can guess if you've read any of my other posts... Yes, I'd had enough! ;D. Haha! So, just beaten and 71%.

Luna's Fishing Garden

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I noticed this based on the rating alone. There aren't many games that are Overwhelmingly positive' on Steam that you don't know much about, but this was one of them. Had it low down on my wish/watch list for a while and got it in a sale.

Kind of an idle game. Very simple. Collect things and do tasks. There's a story but not much to it. In fact, the game is very short too. 100% in about 3.5 hours and I wasn't rushing. I'm not sure I'd recommend it, but it was kind of mindless fun for a few hours. I guess as an 'idle' game, it matches the description well.

Cozy Grove

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This is a difficult one. I kind of have a love-hate relationship with this game. Some of the reviews and tags on Steam describe it as a 'life sim', 'Animal crossing', 'a ritual'. and there is mention of 'depth of storytelling'. The one I would agree with is it's 'a ritual' or, maybe it's like a drug.

I put 68 hours into this game and now, after finishing the main story, I'm not sure why. I didn't really gain anything from it. I feel like it was just a habit or a ritual that I needed to continue until I finished it because I didn't want to go back and do it again. Like I was in a cult. I'm going to quote another Steam review here, 'The aesthetic is lovely, the vibe is great, the characters enjoyable, and I was quite keen on the idea of just popping in for fairly short sessions each day - but after a week, when I loaded up for my 8th consecutive day, I realised I had absolutely zero motivation to grind through another round of incredibly repetitive hidden object fetch quests.' This sums up my feelings for the game pretty well, but I guess my motivation to get it off my backlog was greater and I just stuck at it and so I continued to pop in every day for about 2 months.

There were 3-4 more achievements I could have got, but when I saw the option to end the main story I went for it. Getting 100% achievements requires the DLC, I think, and there was no way I was getting that! 80% and in the beaten pile. Thank god! I do not recommend this game unless you want to get sucked into a daily routine of hidden object quests. Friends don't let friends play Cozy Grove.

Backlog Additions

The additions are easier to check than the games I played as I can check back in my Steam account activation history. The list of shameful additions are:

Chicken Police, Teslagrad Remastered (I haven’t finished the original and thought the remastered version would replace it, but alas it’s another entry in my library!), Rollerdome, Restless Soul, Aground, Apico, Metro Last Light, Good Night, Knight, Mail Mole

A Short Hike

7 hours playtime

12 of 12 achievements
Battle Chef Brigade

17 hours playtime

16 of 25 achievements

February-March

A two-month update. Not that I haven’t been playing, I just hadn’t really finished any games at the End of February. Actually, not much better now but I’ve never been more than one month late with an update and I’m not about to start now!

So, the games I’ve been playing but not finishing are:
Mudrunner - Finding this frustrating. Completely different from my expectations! Guess I’ll do the bare minimum I can to call it ‘beaten,’ or snap and uninstall!
Grounded - fun but big and needs a lot of time.
Deathloop - enjoying it a little more, but obviously not enough to actually finish it. Need to get back to it.
Spiritfarer - decent progress on this, but based on achievements I’m nowhere near the end.
Cozy Grove - takes about an hour a day to do the ‘tasks’, so no way to up the pace.

Although a lot of time has passed since my last post, I don’t have much to write. Guess I’m in a bit of a gaining lull at the moment. Playing, but not massive amounts of time, just an hour here and there. I used a lot of holidays at work in March and will be heading back into the office every day from next week, which will seriously reduce my gaming time, so I’m unlikely to make much progress in the coming month. I live further away from the office than pre-Covid days and have been working mainly online for about 3 years, so it’s gonna be a shock to the system.

Onto this month’s games:

Steam

A Short Hike

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Gift from a firned. It's been on my wishlist for a long time. I actually tried it briefly on Gamepass and decided I liked it enough to get on Steam, so stopped pretty quickly. Easy to dip into and pretty relaxing, so a good game for when I'm not spending hours at a time on the PC. Worked well on the Steamdeck too. Pretty familiar to most people, so no review aside form that! 100% done, so 'completed'.

Battle Chef Brigade

Click to read

Another gift! Had this on my wishlist mainly based on the visuals and strong reviews, I didn't really know what it was about.

Primarily a 'matching' game, but with enough variety to stay interesting. I've read comments that it was too short, but it felt just right for me. There are fighting elements to the game, but these are pretty basic and most of the 'skill' comes from the equipment you chose, how you use it, and the matching part. I liked it enough to beat it twice and pick up a few more achievements, but not enough to go for 100%. Probably not good enough to do that either, the daily challenges are tough. So, an above average 64% and 'beaten'.

Backlog Additions

More additions. A mixture of bought games, gifts, one freebie and one win. My bad start to the year continues as the number of games increases and my completed percentage drops:

Sludge Life, Roboquest, A Short Hike, Spiritfarer®: Farewell Edition, MudRunner, Luna’s Fishing Garden,

Statistics

434	games
11%	never played
27%	unfinished
44%	beaten
17%	completed
1%	won't play

Lists

Won on SteamGifts 27