The Backlog Check-in Vol. 300: 9/30/23: Assassin’s Creed Mirage/Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless/NHL 24 Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: Nothing

Finished: Nothing

Playing: ?

Added: Nothing

Games releasing this week
Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Asterix & Obelix: Heroes
Bang-On Balls: Chronicles
Bilkin’s Folly
Blossom Tales II: The Minotaur Prince
Builder Simulator
Deadly Rain
Detective Pikachu Returns
Dinobreak
Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless
The Fabulous Fear Machine
Front Mission 2: Remake
Galaxy Kart VR
Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game
Heads Will Roll: Reforged
High on Life: High on Knife
[ I ] Doesn’t Exist - A Modern Text Adventure
IRA
Knight vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur
The Lamplighters League
My Little Universe
New World: Rise of the Angry Earth
NHL 24
Nuwa
Ontotis
Ooblets
The Pale Beyond
Pixel Ripped 1995
Quasimorph
Silent Hope
The Sisters 2: Road to Fame
Station to Station
Stop Dead
Sunshine Manor
Survivor: Castaway Island
Sweet Dreams Alex
Sword Art Online: Last Recollection
Synergia
Thief Simulator 2
Transmissions
Trepang 2
Wargroove 2
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide

[argyle]

Games added: PS4: Trollhunters, Citadel: Forged With Fire, Risk of Rain 2, New Gundam Breaker Xbox One: Roman Rumble in Las Vegum: Asterix & Obelix XXL 2, Hasbro Family Fun Pack (Monopoly, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit and Risk), Trackmania Turbo, Desperados III, Maneater

Last week: Finished nothing, played Starfield & Souldiers

This week: Same

I played very little Souldiers last week - I'm close to the end, but the platforming has gotten nasty. I'm stuck right now at a timed platforming sequence - there's rising lava & you have to do a lot of precision platforming very quickly to avoid it. Very nasty.

Still enjoying Starfield - actually liking it more the more I play. I've finished up one of the faction questlines and am working on another one now. As I normally do with Bethesda RPGs, I'm actively avoiding the main storyline for the most part.

[isthatallyougot]

As I normally do with Bethesda RPGs, I'm actively avoiding the main storyline for the most part.

Ha, I totally get that. Oblivion is a top 5 (or thereabouts) all time game for me, and I've played it for hundreds of hours over multiple "play-throughs" and *never* even finished the main quest. (I know the resolution though.) That's part of what makes Bethesda RPGs so unique and special to me. There's so much to do and see, and as you live your life as your virtual character, your own story emerges that can fit into the overall narrative, of course, but can also exist in at least partial, if not complete, isolation.

*********

I'm still playing and enjoying TWEWY. I'm on Joshua day 4, so I guess about half through everything. I'm kind of stuck now though. I've looked everywhere and have been unable to open progress. I may look it up if it doesn't pop for me soon.

I also started up Broken Age. I've never played it and I almost always enjoy Double Fine's stuff and was in the mood for a P&C. Excellent presentation as expected, but I'm still early on.

[jfissel]

Finished: Zero Time Dilemma (all branches and scenes complete)

Now Playing: ???

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 40 games

I finished Zero Time Dilemma. Pretty interesting, but I think I still prefer 999 the best (I don't remember much about Virtue's Last Reward).

Spiderman 2 coming out in a few weeks, I may play something quick in the meantime.

[crimson_tide]

As I normally do with Bethesda RPGs, I'm actively avoiding the main storyline for the most part.

Ha, I totally get that. Oblivion is a top 5 (or thereabouts) all time game for me, and I've played it for hundreds of hours over multiple "play-throughs" and *never* even finished the main quest. (I know the resolution though.) That's part of what makes Bethesda RPGs so unique and special to me. There's so much to do and see, and as you live your life as your virtual character, your own story emerges that can fit into the overall narrative, of course, but can also exist in at least partial, if not complete, isolation.

*********

I'm still playing and enjoying TWEWY. I'm on Joshua day 4, so I guess about half through everything. I'm kind of stuck now though. I've looked everywhere and have been unable to open progress. I may look it up if it doesn't pop for me soon.

I also started up Broken Age. I've never played it and I almost always enjoy Double Fine's stuff and was in the mood for a P&C. Excellent presentation as expected, but I'm still early on.

I think that's where the game almost lost me too. It's all because Sho is way more hands off than the first game master but that weird decision totally justified itself in the narrative. The end of week 2 had me so bought in that the game was already in contention for my favorite game ever. I am glad you are enjoying it! I too loved all the weird systems they mashed together to make what they made in the end. And that soundtrack, they went way too hard. I also love that Neku grows as a character but doesn't necessarily change. I hope you stick with it through the end!

I keep looking at the multitude of point and click type games I own. Given the painfully small amount of gaming time I have lately, I might have to make a hard switch and go in that direction for a bit. I likely wouldn't start with Broken Age but something much older like the Mac Adventure collection I bought way back with Shadowgate, De Ja Vu and The Uninvited. Then I could work my way forward. I might even replay the Back to the Future game and The Wolf Among Us...at least I know I can get through those kind of games at a pretty good clip...

Played: ...I don't think I played anything. I just go in the basement, boot up the PS4 and fall asleep going through whatever sale they have going

Bought: Nothing yet but I did grab Weird West from PS+ out of morbid curiosity

This week: Probably dabble in Weird West then try some point and click adventure stuff/fighting game/racers... something really slight and non committal at the moment. October is a beast of a month this year, I can't even think of anything I want to invest actual time in because I don't have any time ! Maybe in November .

[isthatallyougot]

I think that's where the game almost lost me too. It's all because Sho is way more hands off than the first game master but that weird decision totally justified itself in the narrative. The end of week 2 had me so bought in that the game was already in contention for my favorite game ever. I am glad you are enjoying it! I too loved all the weird systems they mashed together to make what they made in the end. And that soundtrack, they went way too hard. I also love that Neku grows as a character but doesn't necessarily change. I hope you stick with it through the end!

I got past the part where I was stuck. I don't know how much you remember, given how long it's been out, but there was a red reaper blocking progression, and you don't know which ones are main pathways and which are optional, so I was stuck wandering for a while. This one - the one I needed to open - was a guy who had advised me that I needed a "sexy+" pin and that if he were me, he'd set the game to easy. Well, I'm stubborn and didn't want to do that. I had already halved (or more) my hit points in order to increase drops dramatically, and I had fought tons of fights in that area, but no sexy+ drop. So I figured that maybe this just wasn't the main path. However, after wandering around for a long time and getting nowhere, I decided to try that area again and I did drop it to easy and the pin dropped on the first fight, allowing me to move forward. I set it back to normal after that fight, but I was a little annoyed that I had to drop the difficulty to get that pin. Anyway, I'm now on Beat's day 2 - the final week apparently. It's continued to be a fun game. When you get a nice set of pins and have some evolution to them and some powerful gear/fashion, you can really wreak some havoc. There's tons of variety in how a player might want to approach their character and I appreciate that degree of flexibility. To be honest, I'm sure I don't love the game as much as you do, but that doesn't mean it's not a fun game to me, and one that is well worth playing.

Did you do all the post game stuff? I read that there's tons to do after completing the main campaign if you so desire, apparently more than the primary game itself, at least according to Howlongtobeat's completionsist time vs just beating the game.

[canedaddy]

Played recently: Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

Finished: nothing

Added to backlog: nothing

Current backlog: 33


Greetings, young people. Back from Nashville, which is a fun town. If I stayed a few more days I might have become a full-fledged redneck.

My little break from gaming ended when I fired up Amalur. It really hit the spot. Dang shame there'll never be a sequel from 38 Studios. They knocked it out of the park.

[isthatallyougot]

Glad to see you got back on the horse cane. I was beginning to wonder if I'd have to wish you fare thee well and pour one out for you!

It's always good to have variety in life imho. No matter how much I love something, I need to give it a rest from time to time to keep things fresh. But we're all a little unique. Gaming is the one activity from which I rarely need too much respite however. But I've had several breaks over the years, sometimes very long. But the nature of gaming is variety itself - if you love many genres and eras like I do, so I'm usually pretty good with ongoing engagement.


********

I'm on Beat day 3 of TWEWY. So, I don't think I've got too much left to go as the tensions seems to be building to climax. Fun game. I have some complaints, but that's true even for some of my favorite games ever. (I wouldn't rank this among them, fwiw, despite really enjoying my time with it.) I could see myself playing some of the post-game content if it seems to be worth it. We'll see how things are presented when I get there.

Still enjoying Broken Age as well. I just switched over from the girl's first stage story to the boy's, and typical of Double Fine, it's full of color, imagination and sparkling creativity.

[canedaddy]

Glad to see you got back on the horse cane. I was beginning to wonder if I'd have to wish you fare thee well and pour one out for you!

It's always good to have variety in life imho. No matter how much I love something, I need to give it a rest from time to time to keep things fresh. But we're all a little unique. Gaming is the one activity from which I rarely need too much respite however. But I've had several breaks over the years, sometimes very long. But the nature of gaming is variety itself - if you love many genres and eras like I do, so I'm usually pretty good with ongoing engagement.

I don't have access to quite the breadth of stuff that you do, but I do enjoy all sorts of genres and generations... and Amalur was perfect for my re-entry. I'm sure I've said this before, but it was made by developers here in Maryland, and I went to a midnight release party near their HQ where Ken Rolston and some other muckety-mucks signed copies of the game and whatnot. They were all very cool. And then when I played it the first time, I discovered they had a set of Baltimore Ravens-themed armor in there. Blew my mind. I'd have been in love with the game even if it sucked, but the fact that I enjoyed every aspect of it put it over the top.

[isthatallyougot]

Yeah, I remember your connection to the roots of the game / Ravens link. It's funny for me with Amalur. I remember playing and enjoying it, but can recall next to *nothing* about it, lol. I scored it a 4/5 on July 20, 2014. Usually with games I consider worthy of 4 stars and above, I've got vivid recollection of many things. For whatever reason with Amalur, it's almost a blank. Granted, it was never a "high" 4/5 for me, but I still know I had fun with it. It makes me wonder in my darker existential moments if we could have very well all done all of this before but simply have no remembrance. Shivers! Terrifying.

I did get it again on PC - the Re-Reckoning as part of a bundle. Maybe, I'll fire it up one day only to discover that I *NEVER* played it in the first place, yet somehow it was ranked on my spreadsheet.



Edit: Did phase quit gaming and finally go outdoors?