Community Backlog Blitz Season 13 - Runs October 1 through December 31 with a raffle at the end

[Wibblewozzer]

Good reminder that you've all got one month to go. Better get working on your games because the holiday season will likely get in the way for some of you.

Also, a reminder that if anyone wishes to you can chip into the prize pool. It's currently at $21.56 which is just the base for this go around. It'll hit during the Winter Sale so games will be cheaper even if it doesn't go up from there.

 

[gabbo]

Game two down:
Away - The Survival Series

An interesting environmentally-conscious platform adventure with kinda jank mouse and keyboard controls that can really detract from the experience.
Still, enjoyed and it's short enough to not overstay it's welcome

 

[Futaleufu]

Finished Need for Speed 2015. Cheesy FMV, probably the hardest NFS game to complete (only 7.7% of players got the related achievement). Kind of mediocre: small map, small variety of cars, cars tuned to grip that need handbrake to take curves, severe rubberbanding and NPCs that spawn just as you are taking a turn. Recommended only if you really like racing games.

That's 4 out of 5.

 

[Parsnip]

Finished Super Mario Bros 2 and I'm now 5/5.



Now that's done, I can say with fair certainty that I did play through the whole thing without warps at some point in the past. I'd say World 3 felt the most unfamiliar overall, probably warped over that most of the time.
One strange thing to realize was that there's not a ton of music in the game. I mean of course I would have known that if I actually thought about it, but it really is just that 1 overworld and 1 underworld theme most of the time.

 

[Wibblewozzer]

I completed all five of mine really early this time so I haven't been as active in the thread. But don't forget to complete your games! Only around two weeks remaining!

 

[gabbo]

... But don't forget to complete your games! Only around two weeks remaining!

I'm trying! Don't rush

 

[Futaleufu]

I completed Little Big Adventure 2. Along LBA1 they are the most hardcore gaming experiences I've played this year. No handholding of any kind, relentless progressive difficulty, sometimes you get an arrow on your map telling you your next objective, sometimes you don't, and combat that requires some planning regarding the best weapon for a given situation. It's also a lot easier than LBA1.

That's 5/5 for this season. Next one I won't choose a 200 hours game like Nioh.

 

[Kvik]

With only two weeks left in 2022, it seems like I won't have time to complete all 5 of my picks for this season. It's a combination of procrastinating too much on other games and perhaps a little burnout from my FF journey, too.

On the flip side, I did complete two of them. Well, I'll try again next season with a fresh outlook.

Trails from Zero

It's my favourite Trails game, so it's pretty much like breathing.

I wrote a longer review on Steam, but suffice to say that I'll go for NG++ before Azure release in March.

Steam Community :: Kvik :: Review for The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero

Trails from Zero is my favourite Trails game, and after playing the official western release of the game, my opinion remains unmoved. Sky SC and Sky 3rd were special games to me, but there's something about the SSS section that sets it apart from the Liberl folks' dynamics. The Special Support...

steamcommunity.com

Yakuza 3

It's the weakest Yakuza games I've played so far. The lack of Kiwami treatment was one thing, but they squandered the opportunity a bit by having one of the most uninteresting antagonists I've seen so far in the series. The return of a certain character (but not really) also didn't make a good storyline out of it. I don't hate the slice of life bits in Okinawa, with Kiryu trying to manage his orphanage the best he can. I do hate that they wrote Kaoru out of the story unceremoniously, like, what the hell man. Managing a dozen brats is already hard enough, and he lost the one person that understand him for some contrived reason? Shit's tough, but I digress.

And don't get me started on the combat. I'm just glad it's over.

 

[Wibblewozzer]

It's the weakest Yakuza games I've played so far. The lack of Kiwami treatment was one thing, but they squandered the opportunity a bit by having one of the most uninteresting antagonists I've seen so far in the series. The return of a certain character (but not really) also didn't make a good storyline out of it. I don't hate the slice of life bits in Okinawa, with Kiryu trying to manage his orphanage the best he can. I do hate that they wrote Kaoru out of the story unceremoniously, like, what the hell man. Managing a dozen brats is already hard enough, and he lost the one person that understand him for some contrived reason? Shit's tough, but I digress.

And don't get me started on the combat. I'm just glad it's over.

I always say Yakuza 3 is my least favorite. Thankfully they quickly ramp back up. Yakuza 4 is pretty solid but my issue with 3 remains in that it feels like they were still taking things more serious in these games. The side stories tend to be much more boring and simple stuff without any real flavor that you come to expect from the series. Combat does improve and I liked the characters and story a lot better. And I know Yakuza 5 is a bit mixed but I absolutely loved it. I put a ton of time into it, completed the vast majority of stuff in the game, etc. And then Yakuza 6 is my second least favorite (but I might be the minority on this thought). At least it plays pretty well and looks good. Anyhow, lots more Yakuza in your future and things mostly go up from where you are!

 

[kio]

Forgot to update my status so here goes.
Finished Pumpkin Jack in november and can't say I liked it that much. Everything is too janky to be fun, the combat is awful , the platforming isn't good coupled with a bad camera, the story and writing are amateurish to say the least... I'm willing to give it a pass if it's the devs first game otherwise just stay away.
Finished the story of Tactics Ogre Reborn and truth be told it's basically the only thing I played these past 2 months. It's very good, almost perfect apart from some weird design choices that I don't know if are new or inherited from the original game. Right now I'm doing post game stuff, recruting all the characters and finding all the paths towards the end and it seems I originaly chose the hardest route (chaos route), albeit it's also the most satisfying tbh. Big glowing recomendation from me.

 

[Wibblewozzer]

Good time to remind everyone it's the final days! You've got today and tomorrow to wrap anything up and update the spreadsheet. I skimmed it the other day and I think this was not the most successful three months of backlog games! As per usual I'll be making a new thread sometime tomorrow and update the spreadsheet and all that. Soon after I'll do the raffle and alert the winner.

Forgot to update my status so here goes.
Finished Pumpkin Jack in november and can't say I liked it that much. Everything is too janky to be fun, the combat is awful , the platforming isn't good coupled with a bad camera, the story and writing are amateurish to say the least... I'm willing to give it a pass if it's the devs first game otherwise just stay away.
Finished the story of Tactics Ogre Reborn and truth be told it's basically the only thing I played these past 2 months. It's very good, almost perfect apart from some weird design choices that I don't know if are new or inherited from the original game. Right now I'm doing post game stuff, recruting all the characters and finding all the paths towards the end and it seems I originaly chose the hardest route (chaos route), albeit it's also the most satisfying tbh. Big glowing recomendation from me.

Shame on Pumpkin Jack, bought that some time ago and was interested to get around to it.

 

[ganmo]

Good time to remind everyone it's the final days! You've got today and tomorrow to wrap anything up and update the spreadsheet. I skimmed it the other day and I think this was not the most successful three months of backlog games! As per usual I'll be making a new thread sometime tomorrow and update the spreadsheet and all that. Soon after I'll do the raffle and alert the winner.


Shame on Pumpkin Jack, bought that some time ago and was interested to get around to it.

Darn I couldn't finish one single game this round haha. I blame it on the month long trip I had and then period of lackluster to play some games though. Still I am playing Okami now and then, and probably I will carry it over to next round so I can complete it

 

[Wibblewozzer]

New Blitz tab is up so feel free to start listing your next games. You can post them here as well or wait for the new thread which I'll have up within the next hour or so. And I'll do the raffle pretty soon as well (unless someone speaks up right away that they intend to finish a Blitz game in the final hours, but most the world is past the deadline).

 

[Wibblewozzer]

We have ourselves a winner! Everyone, congratulate Futaleufu for completing Unravel and winning the Blitz this go around. The prize in the end was $31.56 after a last-minute prize pool donation reached me yesterday (but only noticed a couple hours ago). As per usual, send me a PM with what you'd like and if there are any region shenanigans it's always good to let me know so that doesn't block anything.

The new thread will be live right after this so feel free to post the congrats there.

 

[Parsnip]

Congrats Futaleufu !

 

[ganmo]

Congrats Futaleufu