The Backlog Check-in Vol. 348: 8/31/24: NBA 2K25 Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: Second Life

Finished: Nothing

Playing: Second Life

Added: Nothing

Games releasing this week
Ace Attorney Investigations Collection
Aero the Acro-Bat 2
Age of Mythology: Retold
Astro Bot
Bakeru
Boyhood’s End
The Casting of Frank Stone
Date A Live: Ren Dystopia
Demon’s Mirror
Gimmick! 2
Guns and Draguns
Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions
Machinika: Atlas
NBA 2K25
Paper Ghost Stories: Third Eye Open
Parcel Corps
Perennial Order
Pneumata
Shogun Showdown
Smells Like a Mushroom
Spectre Divide
Starcom: Unknown Space
Star Trucker
Starwave
Sumerian Six
Sunsoft is Back! Retro Game Selection
Touhou Danmaku Kagura: Phantasia Lost
What the Car?

[jfissel]

Finished: Jeanne d'Arc PS5 (platinum)

Now Playing: ???

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 43 games

Jeanne d'Arc is platinum'd! Post-game took a bit of leveling up, though it could be argued I was a little over. I just like to be safe and have an easier time on those last few levels/trophies.

Astro Bot is out this week - excited for that! And then Age of Mythology was one of my fav RTS games back when I played them in the late 90s/early 00s. Will most likely pick up Retold on Steam at some point to check it out.

[crimson_tide]

Wait...Aero the Acrobat 2? I knew the first one came out because of this thread weeks ago...are they gonna re release Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel? Because that game was a spinoff but was actually the best Aero thing. I rented it several times. I would totally play that again!

It's been a month fam! Hope all's well. I might get back to Outriders because the old man made it sound appealing. He did that for Mad Max as well which I bought for Steam Deck for $2 because he endorsed it. Old man has been on a tear lately!

I want to do the game club thing. Getting my list of candidates together. Old man is correct that it's rough on console but these PC deals have given me quite a backlog of wide swaths of games! It's taking me a minute to get it all together.

Also, not really a gaming summer unfortunately. 4 kiddos and a self employed partner who travels really eats all of the time available. Commute returning and a Steam Deck will give me some time back I guess.

Played: Overcooked and Unpacking with the kiddo (she LOVES it). Some DBZ Xenoverse, Legacy of the Wizard and SMT 3 on Deck. Izzy, I am frustrated because I often don't know where to go. I know it's supposed to be hardcore and all...but an arrow onscreen or even sentence in the menu would be GREAT especially since I put the game down for long stretches. Just saying .

And also Lego City Undercover. I can explain...

Beat: I am half serious about doing something with this ridiculous backlog. Also on D&D nights, to keep myself awake, I play something just to keep my hands busy since it's over Discord and it's real late for me. I heard that Lego City Undercover ends with a musical. I played a huge chunk during the game. I finished it the next night. It does not end with a musical. At all. I was extremely disappointed.

Bought: ugh, at this point I'm just going to make a huge list in the haul thread. I bought so much I just don't have time to play because it's cheap .

[isthatallyougot]

I want to do the game club thing. Getting my list of candidates together. Old man is correct that it's rough on console but these PC deals have given me quite a backlog of wide swaths of games! It's taking me a minute to get it all together.

PC gaming knows no limits. The backlog...she hurts and bursts.

Izzy, I am frustrated because I often don't know where to go. I know it's supposed to be hardcore and all...but an arrow onscreen or even sentence in the menu would be GREAT especially since I put the game down for long stretches. Just saying .

Seriously though, I know it can be a little un-hand-holdy. Make sure you talk (and listen) to everyone, and maaayyyybe keep playing it consistently.

And also Lego City Undercover. I can explain...

Beat: I am half serious about doing something with this ridiculous backlog. Also on D&D nights, to keep myself awake, I play something just to keep my hands busy since it's over Discord and it's real late for me. I heard that Lego City Undercover ends with a musical. I played a huge chunk during the game. I finished it the next night. It does not end with a musical. At all. I was extremely disappointed.

Dang, now I want it to end with a big musical, lol. I've had it in my backlog forever, but now I'll never play it because no...



***********************************

I'm absolutely loving Legend Bowl. It totally hits the right mix of realistic (but fun) gameplay and tactics along with light-hearted and silly presentation elements.

I'm also having a great time with Kaze and the Wild Masks, but it's much more challenging than I was expecting going in. It's not Celeste difficulty, but there's plenty of repetition until you become familiar with the levels. I'd probably be embarrassed to see my death count on some levels.

[argyle]

Games added: Bupkis.

Last (2) weeks: Finished Piczle Colors, played Atlas Fallen and a little Planet of Lana.

This week: Same. May jump back into Unicorn Overlord.

So Fall registration is finally over, classes have started, and now things can chill out for the most part until we hit the holiday season. I haven't mentioned it, but I've been playing a puzzle game in my wind down time, Piczle Colors. It's basically Sudoku but with colors instead of math. Or a more complex Picross. Basically you have a grid w/ numbers across the left & the top. Whatever color the number is, there are that many squares in that row that are that color, and if the number is circled that means all of that color in that row are adjacent. There were a ton of puzzles in the game, over 300, and they started very easy and got really tricky by the end. I really enjoyed it overall, but it had some jank to it. Mainly, sometimes you'd press a button to fill a square and the cursor would jump one spot before filling. Very annoying. Also, I was surprised they didn't have an option to mark a square as "maybe" - make it faintly the color or something - because especially in the harder puzzles, sometimes you're trying to work it out and it's a little trial-and-error, but without being able to tell which squares you were positive about & which you weren't, you end up having to just clear a bunch of them.

After finishing it, I looked for another game that played like it but haven't been able to find any. That company does another type of puzzle game and I'm guessing it was way more popular for them because they've made quite a few of that type, but only the one like this (and it's from 2019).

Atlas Fallen went up on Gamepass a couple weeks ago, and it's a blast. I'd describe it as open world Darksiders. If that sounds like your jam, I highly recommend checking it out.

EDIT: I almost forgot, but I was actually playing Kaze earlier this year - can't tell you why I put it down, because I was really enjoying it. The difficulty comes (as I'm sure you're aware izzy) from trying to get all the whats-its from each level, and then of course from the really nasty bonus levels that unlocks. I need to pick that back up, but at the same time I'm not sure if it's a game I can jump back into mid-way or not. :\

[isthatallyougot]

EDIT: I almost forgot, but I was actually playing Kaze earlier this year - can't tell you why I put it down, because I was really enjoying it. The difficulty comes (as I'm sure you're aware izzy) from trying to get all the whats-its from each level, and then of course from the really nasty bonus levels that unlocks. I need to pick that back up, but at the same time I'm not sure if it's a game I can jump back into mid-way or not. :\

Yeah, it is really good at enticing you - well, at least me - to want to pursue that 100%. (I don't know if I'll do it or not.) There's tons of little carrots on a stick to keep you jumping in and trying to make more progress. I finished the bonus (invisible platforms) level in world 1 a day or two ago. It wasn't too bad, with either visual indicators or memorization seeing you through, but when I first saw it I was like, um, where am I supposed to land, lol. Really fun game imho.

Edit: I don't know what's happening with this board, but phase is living his second life, crim has 50 kids and 8 minutes of total gaming time per month, and cane died apparently. I'll soon be talking to myself - not that that would be out of the ordinary.

[argyle]

Edit: I don't know what's happening with this board, but phase is living his second life, crim has 50 kids and 8 minutes of total gaming time per month, and cane died apparently.

I've been playing some more Planet of Lana - it replaced Piczle Colors as my "chill" game. It's very good, a side-scrolling puzzle/platformer that is VERY reminiscent of ICO or, I guess, more accurately, The Last Guardian. I'm really enjoying it - it's a gorgeous game, and the puzzles are engaging enough to require some thought without being obtuse and annoying. Like in TLG, you have a companion creature that you can give simple commands to and you use it to solve environmental puzzles. It doesn't break any new ground, but it's more of a "sum is greater that its parts" deal. It's apparently a fairly short game, so I feel like I'm far enough end to give it a recommend to anyone who's interested in it. I'm sure I'll have it wrapped up in a few days tho and can give my final thoughts then.

In real world news, my migraines have been giving me heck lately but I finally got some good news today. I had another follow-up visit w/ the specialist I've been working with for about a year now last week, and we discussed starting the botox injections to see if they would help. She was going to contact my insurance company & find out how much I'd have to pay for them - it turns out my insurance will cover them 100%. That is really good news that I needed - now here's hoping this does the trick and gets rid of - or seriously decreases - these motherlovin' migraines.

[jfissel]

Started Astro Bot and got 100% on the first level! This is going to be a collectables marathon I believe...

In real world news, my migraines have been giving me heck lately but I finally got some good news today. I had another follow-up visit w/ the specialist I've been working with for about a year now last week, and we discussed starting the botox injections to see if they would help. She was going to contact my insurance company & find out how much I'd have to pay for them - it turns out my insurance will cover them 100%. That is really good news that I needed - now here's hoping this does the trick and gets rid of - or seriously decreases - these motherlovin' migraines.

Awesome, I hope that treatment works!

[isthatallyougot]

I've been playing some more Planet of Lana - it replaced Piczle Colors as my "chill" game. It's very good, a side-scrolling puzzle/platformer that is VERY reminiscent of ICO or, I guess, more accurately, The Last Guardian. I'm really enjoying it - it's a gorgeous game, and the puzzles are engaging enough to require some thought without being obtuse and annoying. Like in TLG, you have a companion creature that you can give simple commands to and you use it to solve environmental puzzles. It doesn't break any new ground, but it's more of a "sum is greater that its parts" deal. It's apparently a fairly short game, so I feel like I'm far enough end to give it a recommend to anyone who's interested in it. I'm sure I'll have it wrapped up in a few days tho and can give my final thoughts then.

It was already on my wishlist, but that description made me place it firmly in my need-to-get place in my mind. The Ueda trilogy is *high* on my all-time list. I'd temper my expectations a bit though, as I've never found another director/creator that captures that same essence. But good to hear it's got some of that magic.

Hopefully you get all the migraine issues sorted. I've had the rare severe headache, but never dealt with migraines, but I've been told how debilitating they can be.

[canedaddy]

Edit: I don't know what's happening with this board, but phase is living his second life, crim has 50 kids and 8 minutes of total gaming time per month, and cane died apparently. I'll soon be talking to myself - not that that would be out of the ordinary.

I'm alive, barely. Life has taken many crazy turns since I was laid off back in July. Can't remember if I mentioned this, but my daughter snapped her ankle, so I have been spending a whole lot of time taking care of the grandkids (ages 1 and 5). It is insanely exhausting but incredibly enjoyable. My mother also moved in with us Sunday (the woman whose house she rented died, and the husband wanted her out right away so he could sell).