The 2023 Backlog Challenge

[Jeevan | 8,952]

@Reed Rothchild +1 for daikatana...... what a game.......

Edited August 26, 2023 by Jeevan

[Reed Rothchild | 9,598]

2/3 of the way through the year.  Lots of new personal bests.  Lots of decent numbers.  Lots of zeroes (again).  And one person with 2 accounts.   And has anyone seen @Gaia Gensouki ?

Progress report:

Reed Rothchild 33/45 (new personal best)
@ThePhleo 0/110
@twiztor 6/13
@MagusSmurf 5/36
@darkchylde28 1/13
@FireHazard51 3/31
@Sumez 27/58
@Brickman 15/33 (new personal best)
@Webhead123 5/14 (new personal best)
@Renmauzo 3/18
@Gloves 3/9
@ScaryD 2/16
@Philosoraptor 43/50
@Lago 5/20 (new personal best)
@fox 8/39
@Murray 0/10
@ifightdragons 0/26
@PekoponTAS 3/21
@the_wizard_666 0/40
@Foochie776 6/25
@Vectrex28 0/11
@Floating Platforms 25/50 (new personal best)
@spacepup 3/15 (new personal best)
@Splain 1/6
@Gaia Gensouki 9/305 (new personal best)
@Jicsan 0/1
@HANSOLOOOOOOOO 3/20
@greenthunder 7/20
@nesmaster14 6/10 (new personal best)
@Jaden 1/20
@ConfusedCollector 4/41
@Jeevan 48/75 (maybe? who knows) (new personal best)
@DoctorEncore 5/20
@BortLicensePlate 0/14
@Matchbook 1/8
@G-type 0/1
@RH 0/1
@Jynx 0/13

 

[Splain | 2,592]

Thanks for the nudge, I've made some progress and I'm hoping to report some good news here in a couple days.

[Gloves | 11,845]

Mmmmm. I'd really love to just sit and play one of the games on my list, but man I've been stressed lately. Can't seem to just sit still. Work and new house and all, too much on my mind.

[Brickman | 4,022]

4 hours ago, Reed Rothchild said:

2/3 of the way through the year.  Lots of new personal bests.  Lots of decent numbers.  Lots of zeroes (again).  And one person with 2 accounts.   And has anyone seen @Gaia Gensouki ?

Progress report:

Reed Rothchild 33/45 (new personal best)
@ThePhleo 0/110
@twiztor 6/13
@MagusSmurf 5/36
@darkchylde28 1/13
@FireHazard51 3/31
@Sumez 27/58
@Brickman 15/33 (new personal best)
@Webhead123 5/14 (new personal best)
@Renmauzo 3/18
@Gloves 3/9
@ScaryD 2/16
@Philosoraptor 43/50
@Lago 5/20 (new personal best)
@fox 8/39
@Murray 0/10
@ifightdragons 0/26
@PekoponTAS 3/21
@the_wizard_666 0/40
@Foochie776 6/25
@Vectrex28 0/11
@Floating Platforms 25/50 (new personal best)
@spacepup 3/15 (new personal best)
@Splain 1/6
@Gaia Gensouki 9/305 (new personal best)
@Jicsan 0/1
@HANSOLOOOOOOOO 3/20
@greenthunder 7/20
@nesmaster14 6/10 (new personal best)
@Jaden 1/20
@ConfusedCollector 4/41
@Jeevan 48/75 (maybe? who knows) (new personal best)
@DoctorEncore 5/20
@BortLicensePlate 0/14
@Matchbook 1/8
@G-type 0/1
@RH 0/1
@Jynx 0/13

 

[spacepup | 2,412]

I smile at myself cause 3 is a personal best hahahah.  But that’s ok, I’ve played lots of other games not on the list also, which was a separate goal - play more games, buy less games.

[Foochie776 | 1,062]

I’m hoping I can finish Oracle of Ages this week, I’m so close! 

[greenthunder | 115]

I keep thinking I have less than 20 games on my list, but then I go back and count and it's 20. I started Devil Survivor Overclocked recently and I've slated Inazuma Eleven 2 as my next game to start. Now if only I could be less distracted by other games.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

With Starfield coming out in a matter of days, I'm not likely to make much progress on my remaining list. I'll eventually finish up Deathloop even though I haven't enjoyed it much at all. I'm also playing Hi Fi Rush which is amazing but not on my backlog since it released this year.

[a3quit4s | 4,127]

52 minutes ago, DoctorEncore said:

With Starfield coming out in a matter of days, I'm not likely to make much progress on my remaining list. I'll eventually finish up Deathloop even though I haven't enjoyed it much at all. I'm also playing Hi Fi Rush which is amazing but not on my backlog since it released this year.

I’m pretty excited about the potential of Starfield. I get it free with game pass so I preloaded it. I’m not excited about the time commitment, I probably won’t even finish the main campaign if it takes like 80-100 hours though. 

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

50 minutes ago, a3quit4s said:

I’m pretty excited about the potential of Starfield. I get it free with game pass so I preloaded it. I’m not excited about the time commitment, I probably won’t even finish the main campaign if it takes like 80-100 hours though. 

I'll probably play it like I play Elder Scrolls and just wander around the galaxy doing whatever I feel like. I never finished the main story in Oblivion or Skyrim, so I'd be surprised if I finish the story in Starfield. I really just want to see and do interesting things and play until I get bored. That could be 40 hours or 140 hours and either is fine with me. I've completely cleared my gaming schedule although Alan Wake 2 is singing its siren song...

[Sumez | 2,995]

Jeez I thought I was doing better than ever before, but apparently it's not even a record

[Webhead123 | 687]

5 hours ago, spacepup said:

I smile at myself cause 3 is a personal best hahahah.  But that’s ok, I’ve played lots of other games not on the list also, which was a separate goal - play more games, buy less games.

Agreed. Even if I haven't yet gotten to a lot of my proclaimed backlog, I feel like I've gotten more games knocked out so far this year than the last 3 or 4 and I think this might be my favorite year of gaming in quite a while. Some of it was anticipated titles that finally materialized and some of it was a concerted effort to go through my annoyingly long Steam library and sort it into "Will Play", "Won't Play" and "Done With" folders. I decided I was "done with" a number of those endless, online-only type games that are designed to suck away your time and offer no real end goal. I did enjoy some of them dearly but I was tired of feeling like I was falling back on those kinds of games and never putting time into all the others I could/should be playing. So far, it's been working well.

Edited August 27, 2023 by Webhead123

[Jicsan | 592]

Played tons of new releases.  Finished the campaign in Diablo IV, then finished Final Fantasy XVI, and also played way too much Double Dragon Gaiden.

I've been chipping away at Dragon Quest 11, in fact I saw credits roll on August 10th...

But of course...

According to @monkeybut625 I still have 30 more hours to see the "real" ending.  So I haven't called it done yet.

Spoiler

The post game, or epilogue, or whatever you want to call has me bummed out.

I had everyone leveled into their 50's and then I traveled back in time and everyone, except for the Luminary, are now only in the 20's!  So the boss wiped the floor with me.  I'm going to have to go grind more levels, again.  Ugnh!

 

Edited August 29, 2023 by Jicsan

[Brickman | 4,022]

Kuru Kuru Kurin for the GBA is done. The controls are both a curse and an interesting aspect of this game. 

For those who don’t know this game it is essentially a puzzle game where you move around a rotating stick through a course while avoiding touching the walls and any obstacles. You get three hearts to make it to the end with some pit stops to refill your hearts on the longer levels.

The moving around of the rotating stick is an interesting idea and rather unique. However the controls using the D pad make it feel awkward and at times quite difficult when you need to be very accurate. I did have some small improvement with using the Switch Pro controller connected to the Pocket dock.

The soundtrack is great with a lot of catchy songs and the worlds are interesting and diverse.

I’ll settle on a 7/10. It’s a good game but the controls make it a bit too frustrating to give it a higher score.

I really need to get back into my GC games I started earlier in the year.

[Brickman | 4,022]

Mickey to Minnie no Magical Quest 2 for the GBA game is done.

I’ve had this game on hold for the last few months now and decided to finally finish it off.

This game is just ok. I had high hopes considering it is a Capcom Disney game. 

Soundtrack is good, nice level designs and colours/graphics are nice but the game play is just meh.

You get a few different suits throughout the game and most of them feel pretty mediocre or just awful to use.

I’d give it a 6.5/10.

I’ve changed my backlog a little. I don’t think it is realistic that I will play so many switch games this year so I’ve changed it to switch, GBA or 3DS as the option of game to play but have kept the amount the same.

[T-Pac | 7,590]

On 8/29/2023 at 4:35 AM, Brickman said:

Kuru Kuru Kurin for the GBA is done. The controls are both a curse and an interesting aspect of this game. 

For those who don’t know this game it is essentially a puzzle game where you move around a rotating stick through a course while avoiding touching the walls and any obstacles. You get three hearts to make it to the end with some pit stops to refill your hearts on the longer levels.

The moving around of the rotating stick is an interesting idea and rather unique. However the controls using the D pad make it feel awkward and at times quite difficult when you need to be very accurate. I did have some small improvement with using the Switch Pro controller connected to the Pocket dock.

The soundtrack is great with a lot of catchy songs and the worlds are interesting and diverse.

I’ll settle on a 7/10. It’s a good game but the controls make it a bit too frustrating to give it a higher score.

I really need to get back into my GC games I started earlier in the year.

I remember hearing about this one and thinking it was such a great concept for a puzzle game. I've never played it, though.

Is the rotation fixed in one direction, or can you switch between clockwise and counterclockwise? That seems like it would be a neat mechanic.

[T-Pac]

[Reed Rothchild | 9,598]

31 minutes ago, T-Pac said:

I remember hearing about this one and thinking it was such a great concept for a puzzle game. I've never played it, though.

Is the rotation fixed in one direction, or can you switch between clockwise and counterclockwise? That seems like it would be a neat mechanic.

[T-Pac]

It's on the Switch online thing, if you have that.

[Brickman | 4,022]

5 hours ago, T-Pac said:

I remember hearing about this one and thinking it was such a great concept for a puzzle game. I've never played it, though.

Is the rotation fixed in one direction, or can you switch between clockwise and counterclockwise? That seems like it would be a neat mechanic.

[T-Pac]

It is clockwise by default but there are springs that you hit to start rotating anti clockwise. This is needed because the courses start curving in ways where it matches your rotation. 

I do recommend playing it because it is a fun game and the levels are all well thought out. 

[Floating Platforms | 742]

Well, I was making great progress on Yakuza Kiwami's climax battles and only had 8 left to do. I decided to unwind with a different game and when coming back today, all my progress was gone.  I've been putting the PS5 in rest mode for weeks but apparently the game doesn't save progress unless you go back to the main menu, so I have to do all but 3 all over again.  Whoops.  It wouldn't be so bad, except that the enemy AI has RNG elements baked in so you can start a fight the same way but get wildly different results, possibly minutes into a run making you do it all again.

There's still a chance I'll be done with this in a week or so since I took time off from work. It will all depend on how hard the NG+ is and how quick that story-only run is.

But, hey, I got a couple levels of Maquette done.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,598]

Control and both DLC

Really had fun with it.  Kind of the X-Files to Alan Wake's Stephen King.  There isn't really much of a final boss, but they made up for that with two tricky bastards at the end of each DLC.

Video games are great.

1. Elden Ring (10/10)
2. Hades (9.5/10)
3. Deathloop (9/10)
4. Baba Is You (9/10)
5. Doom Eternal (9/10)
6. Gradius V (8.5/10)
7. Control (8.5/10)
8. Super Mario 3D World/Bowser's Fury (with the kids) (8.5/10)
9. God of War (8.5/10)
10. MGS: The Twin Snakes (8.5/10)
11. Resident Evil 2 (8.5/10)
12. Ori & the Will of the Wisps (8.5)
13. Ghost of Tsushima (8/10)
14. Sin & Punishment (8/10)
15. Nier Automata (8/10)
16. Dusk (8/10)
17. Into the Breach (8/10)
18. Dark Souls II (8/10)
19. Deus Ex (7.5/10)
20. Hellblade (7.5/10)
21. Ace Attorney 2 (7.5/10)
22. Uncharted 4 (7.5/10)
23. Eternal Darkness (7/10)
24. Xenoblade (7/10)
25. Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold (7/10)
26. Yakuza Kiwami (7/10)
27. Resident Evil 3 (7/10)
28. Onimusha (7/10)
29. What Remains of Edith Finch (6.5/10)
30. Paper Mario (6.5/10)
31. Everblue 2 (6.5/10)
32. Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order (6.5/10)
33. Yoku's Island Express (6.5/10)
34. Pilotwings 64 (6.5/10)
35. Contra Shattered Soldier (6/10)
36. Strife (6/10)
37. A Short Hike (6/10)
38. Mischief Makers (6/10)
39. La Pucelle (5.5/10)
40. Buck Bumble (5.5/10)
41. Indigo Prophecy (5.5/10)
42. Yoshi's Story (4.5/10)
43. Winback (4/10)

TBD:

1. Shenmue (crap)
2. Knights of the old Republic II
3. House of Fata Morgana (too early to tell)

Not started

1. Nioh
2. Last of Us Part II
3. Danganronpa
4. Trails in the Sky
5. Ion Fury
6. Shadowgate
7. Prey

[Gloves | 11,845]

I've started a playthrough of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. It's been a loooong time since I played it last, never finished it before. 

Immediately reminded of how clunky and stiff the controls are, and at least the opening story bits are... Haphazard. The game sets up a pretty cool character for you to hate in the Soul Reaver games, but the first outing as Kain himself is definitely showing its age. 

[Sumez | 2,995]

It being clunky has nothing to do with its age. Unsurprisingly, it was also like that when it came out, and it was never a big success for a reason. 

It gets better in the later parts when you have a nice arsenal of useful spells and rely less on melee combat. Or combat at all. 

Also not sure which version you're playing, but the PS1 version definitely feels a ton more constricted compared to the PC one due to how zoomed in the view is, and all the constant loading. 

 

Edited September 5, 2023 by Sumez

[Sumez | 2,995]

Titanfall 2 - Beaten 2/9

Final FPS on my list for this year, and a game I've frequently seen namedropped as the best FPS release in many years, and by people I trust, not your typical Call of Duty crowd.

It's not a "boomer shooter" or any such thing, though. In fact it's a much more run-of-the-mill modern AAA FPS game than I'd believed, and honestly feels little different from the single player mission in precisely a Call of Duty game - which I guess is unsurprising, given it's made by some of the people behind that franchise.

I guess what sets it mostly apart is the very open approach to movement - you can double jump and run on walls at high speed. But that's almost become the standard at this point, and with games like Doom Eternal which really pushes the constant movement, it affects the core gameplay in Titanfall a lot less. Well, for the single player campaign anyway - I can imagine it plays a bigger role in the multiplayer game, but I have no interest in that.
Ultimately, the most positive aspect of the game is that you have little reason to ever hide behind cover and wait for enemies to peek out. They are sufficiently stupid that just running up to punch an enemy soldier is perfectly fine, and you don't get a lot of bullet sponges either - if you can shoot a guy they'll probably fall almost immediately. The game gives you a lot of tools to just run in like a maniac and still get away unscathed, which is partially thanks to the cloaking button, which can make you entirely invisible from enemies at a split-second's notice, allowing you to always get out of harm's way even if you do screw up.

You might think this makes the game very easy, and it does. I played on Hard mode, and still had an extremely easy time. This is also the kind of game where you don't have a health bar, so as long as you can get away from enemy fire you'll be undamaged after a few seconds no matter how bad you got hit. And as per Triple A standards, there's a new checkpoint every 20 seconds or so. So even if you do screw up it'll barely set you back, and you can pretty much just brute-force your way through the entire game.

As such, I don't think this game left me with much of an impression outside of what many other modern mainstream FPS games do, but in the context of that realm specifically, yeah, it absolutely is among the best. I enjoyed my time with it, and it didn't overstay its welcome.
One thing that really bothered me however is the blatant boner for war and military it constantly displays. I know this is also the standard for many FPS games, but it just feels especially bad in this one - just see for yourself. While the story does its darnest to try and tell you that you are fighting for freedom against some sort of allegedly evil antagonist who just wants to destroy your homeworld for unspecified reasons, every character you meet, including the one you play as, clearly aren't as focused on defending the innocent as much as they just happen to see murdering other humans as a bad-ass hobby, and it makes it really hard to relate to any of them. At the end of the game you end up blowing up an entire planet yourself, but of course that's a good thing because "those were all the bad guys". Geeze.

.... oh yeah, you also get to pilot a big mech. This affects the game a lot less than you'd think.
 

[Brickman | 4,022]

5 hours ago, Sumez said:

One thing that really bothered me however is the blatant boner for war and military it constantly displays. I know this is also the standard for many FPS games, but it just feels especially bad in this one - just see for yourself. While the story does its darnest to try and tell you that you are fighting for freedom against some sort of allegedly evil antagonist who just wants to destroy your homeworld for unspecified reasons, every character you meet, including the one you play as, clearly aren't as focused on defending the innocent as much as they just happen to see murdering other humans as a bad-ass hobby, and it makes it really hard to relate to any of them. At the end of the game you end up blowing up an entire planet yourself, but of course that's a good thing because "those were all the bad guys". Geeze.

Sounds like it was taking a page from the US playbook. Maybe it was meant to be a parody of it 

I’ve never had a desire to play this and your review has just solidified even more of a reason not to