Community Backlog Blitz Season 25 - Runs October 1 through December 31 with a game prize raffle at the end

Wibble

Robot on the inside
Dec 6, 2018
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We just finished a successful twenty-fourth season of the Backlog Blitz. Or series if you're British. What happened during this last quarter that's worth noting? A little something called Silksong finally released after twenty-two years of development in silence. Also Hades II hit v1.0! Indie games are sure popping off! Some good remakes also hit with Final Fantasy Tactics and Trails in the Sky. I'm sure there was other stuff but the world is constantly on fire and those are what came to my mind. With 24 seasons completed we have now bested the current number of Hell's Kitchen episodes. Never seen it but I think people liked it? And now queue some non-sequitur that references some pop culture thing before going back to everyone with blank stares.

We had 14 participants, which was one fewer than last time so I guess I need to start up a recruitment drive. There were 68 game goals set (-7 change) and 53 of them were completed (0 change). Congrats on clearing out those backlogs! The rate of completion was maybe the highest we've ever had? Two people accounted for eight of the 15 games that went uncompleted! Congrats to kio for winning the raffle. Make sure to give them congrats for clearing that backlog and winning. Kio got the win for completing Skin Deep. That reminds me that I really need to get around to trying that one out.

It's Autumn and the leaves are going to start falling and so will our backlogs. Right? But that doesn't stop the new games from coming out and this is historically the time of year when all the big games would drop. Though that feels like less of a focus these years. With how successful we were at completing games surely that means backlogs are getting smaller so we're ready for some new releases? What's actually coming over this next quarter? A brand new Katamari! That's the only game I can immediately recall and one I'm very excited about. How about you all tell me what else is coming that you're excited for so we all know what to add to future Blitzes since we obviously won't get to them now.

The spreadsheet has been updated, the prize pool has been reset. We'll start with $20.00 but chipping in is always welcome. The details to do so will be posted separately within the thread soon after we get started.

Pick your games accordingly!

What it is:

It's a simple way to clear out some backlog games. You select a number of specific games you want to complete and if you complete them in a set time frame you have a chance to pick a game of your choice within the prize limits.

Rules:

First off, there is no time limit on when you can join. If you come in late and only have a month left please feel free to join. Even one completed game will get you entered into the raffle detailed below.

Everyone shares the same rules so an agreed amount of time would be set (three months this time) and then a set amount of games you want to complete in that time (been using five games). You then pick your specific five games with the intention that you don't go changing it all the time. The idea isn't that once you beat some game you go and list it and mark it complete. Instead, you pick five games to complete at the start of the Blitz and ideally you complete them as well as anything else you want to finish in that time.

Prize:

In the end, I suggest a prize pool and a simple raffle done. I always chip in $20 to start it and accept any other additions. Raffle winners must use at least half but can go up to the full price of a game (capped at $60 if the prize pool gets large enough). Leftover goes to the next drawn winner until it gets down to $0 (or close enough at which point I'll just add it to the next Blitz).

Thoughts?

There's no entry fee or anything so there's really no loss for taking part or starting it and then ignoring it. It's just a fun way to clear out backlog games and have discussion about what you're completing. And commiserate if you pick a game you don't enjoy and sour one of your spots on your list.

I created the Google Sheet so feel free to add yourself and games:



I changed to a hide until replied as I think some people had issues with the hide until reacted. Ask any questions and sorry for those that already posted their new lists in the previous thread. Feel free to just post it again here as we continue for the next three months here.

Good luck, everyone![/REPLY]
 
First of all, congrats to kio !
My list:
  1. Ravenloft: Stone Prophet - i should have started it sooner tbh, just after the first game (20.02.2021 - Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession 4/5), but alas, four years passed lol
  2. Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter - probably underwhelming, but oh well
  3. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon - one the last ubi launcher games that i own and i'm done with that shit.
  4. American McGee’s Alice - haven't played it since my school days.
  5. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Fallen - to satisfy my DS9 thirst.
 
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My list this time:
  1. STEINS;GATE: Linear Bounded Phenogram
  2. Yakuza 4 Remastered
  3. God of War: Ragnarok
  4. The Excavation of Hob's Barrow
  5. Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo
 
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Last time my five Blitz games totaled over 226 hours of playtime. So this time I'm going much shorter (also because I'll be focusing on 2025 releases) so my list is:
  • Psychonauts 2
  • Sludge Life
  • Kena: Bridge of Spirits
  • Sorry, We're Closed
  • Last Command
 
Congrats everyone. This is my first full year doing the Backlog Blitz, almost there! For this Blitz, I'm going to focus on games that have been in my backlog for more than two years.

My games:

Far Cry 4: After the valley of tears that was finishing Pathfinder Kingmaker, I need something simple to disconnect. The game has been in my library for years, and I enjoyed the third instalment, so it seems ideal.

Ara Fell: I hardly used the Deck in the last blitz, so I feel like playing some retro RPG to dust it off. I bought this game a couple of years ago and I think it might scratch that itch.

Sanctum 2: One of the first games I bought on Steam, I remember starting it but never finishing it, which is strange because I like Tower Defense games. To the list.

Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars: A friend recommended it to me, I bought it and never played it, time to make amends.

Chicory: A Colorful Tale: What can I say, i'm into cute games.
 
Yeah, that's not the issue.
The issue is that there are 150 Story Mode Puzzles (I believe) and then additional 1000 non Story Mode ones.

According to Steam it took me 128 hours to complete every nonogram in Fairytale Griddler Red Riding Hood, Everyday Genius is another one that takes hundreds of hours to complete without even going to the optional puzzles.

Anyway for this blitz its the Story Mode and then I'll dig into the non story ones until I get my fill.
 
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According to Steam it took me 128 hours to complete every nonogram in Fairytale Griddler Red Riding Hood, Everyday Genius is another one that takes hundreds of hours to complete without even going to the optional puzzles.

Anyway for this blitz its the Story Mode and then I'll dig into the non story ones until I get my fill.
I'm still pissed the dev yanked the game from Play Store and didn't make it compatible with Android past 10 (IIRC)
I mean, it's playable on Deck/Switch, but was certainly way more pleasant to play on a 11 inch tablet...
 
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I'm still pissed the dev yanked the game from Play Store and didn't make it compatible with Android past 10 (IIRC)
I mean, it's playable on Deck/Switch, but was certainly way more pleasant to play on a 11 inch tablet...
Yes, a mouse should be ideal for this but for some reason the scrolling feels wrong, certainly they designed the UI for a controller/gamepad
 
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Thanks for doing all the setup as always Wibble!
  • Kingdom Come Deliverance II
  • Hollow Knight: Silksong
  • Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
  • Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound
  • Cruelty Squad
 
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Alright, here's my list.

Othercide
Palindrome Syndrome: Escape Room
Lightmatter
Jack Move
Haiku, the Robot

Bunch of things.
Checking some estimates from HLTB, few shorter ones and some medium length (I guess?), Othercide being the meatiest.
 
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First Blitz game completed. With much shorter selections this time I expect I'll knock them all out this month:

Sludge Life - It's only 2-3 hours long unless you want to find and do everything (and even then that'll extend it like an hour or so?). I got two of the three endings, with the other ending requiring you to put up all your graffiti tags (I stopped at 69/100). It's a simple and fun exploration game with weird shit going on and some decent platforming. Not a bad time if you just want something short to complete in one session.

Already tried out two of the others on my list and will continue making quick work of these.
 
First game completed: Ford Racing Off Road.

If you like PS2 era low budget racing games and Ford trucks this game is for you. Also has some Land Rover vehicles. Biggest feature is the F-250 Mighty Chief, a luxury truck that remained a concept and never made it into production. The game itself is OK but doesnt do anything to differentiate itself from other racing games available back then.
 
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Second game completed: Death to Spies.

A relentlessly hard stealth game, for most missions there are no shortcuts. Attempts to try to play this as an action game will probably end in failure. Despite this the game is mostly fair, except for those moments where you have to exploit hugging walls or crouching position to pass some area where a disguise wont be enough.

If you think Hitman Blood Money is too hard or if you think Dishonored or Metal Gear are top stealth action this game may not be for you. OTOH if you like the likes of classic Thief or classic Hitman give it a try.
 
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Ara Fell completed, it was fun to beat a game back to back on the Deck., ended up putting around 25h into it. Cute little game, nothing to write home about but it was enjoyable.
 
Third game completed: Piczle Lines DX+α

A simple "join the dots" game that gets way more complicated once bigger numbers and boards start appearing. A 24x24 board can be completed in less than 5 minutes, a 64x64 takes on average 90 minutes. If you like puzzle games go for it, its very cheap on sales.
 
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Completed two more and progress on the other two.

#2 Psychonauts 2 - This is just a bad platformer in a quirky wrapper that makes people say they're great. Was complaining about how bad it feels and poorly designed many of the actual platforming elements are and someone in my chat mentioned "You must not play many 3D platformers" seemingly trying to explain it away as that's par for the course for the genre. I corrected them that it's because I've played a lot of them it's much easier to recognize when one feels bad and isn't enjoyable. So yeah, glad this is done.

#3 Sorry, We're Closed - Kind of could say the same sort of stuff as above for this but just swap in survival horror, with the main difference is the fairly average gameplay really doesn't get in the way of progress or enjoying the rest of the game since there's essentially zero challenge to the game and it isn't demanding a lot from you. Ignoring the gameplay that's just there to progress things, half the game is essentially walking around and chatting and just enjoying the mood and story and that is pretty cool and had me engaged. Not a great game but one I enjoyed going through in one way or another.

Been making bigger progress on Kena: Bridge of Spirits (about halfway through?) but playing it on the hardest difficulty is slowing me down. Last Command is pretty cool and also playing that on Expert.
 
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Haven't been on Meta Council for a hot second but I wanted to participate in a Blitz again. Going with these games:

1. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 (Steam)
2. Dispatch (Steam)
3. Super Mario Galaxy (Switch)
4. MediEvil 2 (PS5)
5. Mothmen 1966 (PS4)
 
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Finished Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound. Really enjoyed it overall, even though it took me a while because I stopped halfway. I might go back later to clean up some achievements but I am happy with one ending at the moment.
 
Finished Final Fantasy Tactics remake a few days ago and I was taking my time trying to parse how I felt about it and I think the whole experience can be described as infuriating. If it matters these opinions are based on my playthrough in the highest difficulty setting.

First things first, it's easy to see why it gathered such a cult following back then as I can't remember if there was anything like it at the time, especially on consoles, and that's both a blessing and a curse as there were no real rules about how to do these types of games which led to some baffling design choices.
There's also the comparison between FFT and Tactics Ogre that's been going on since the internet exists and after playing both I can comfortably say that TO is by far the better game in almost every possible metric and the only thing where FFT takes the lead is it's plot and worldbuilding (but not it's characters), although it's alure and coherence falls apart during the last dungeon.

So why am I saying the game is infuriating? Basically because of all the stupid design choices they've made and how some tweaks could've made the game so much better.

I'm guessing the miniscule map sizes and 5 member party limit per map (or 4 if it's a story mission and you're forced to take your main character) is a carryover from playstation's hardware limitations but even still what's the point of having almost 20 jobs if you can't use them? What's the point of having so many unique characters with unique jobs if you can't use them? TO came out at around the same time and had bigger maps, more characters per map and more classes which reinforced the "tactics" part of it's name.

The map size also created a death-loop of bad design when the npc characters don't follow the same rules as the player ones. More often than not there are maps where the enemies, sometimes most of their team, act first, reach your team and spam attacks in your spawn point, so when you can finally act most of your team is either downed or at 50% hp. It's also infuriating that in story missions you can't see which enemies you're up against or where they'll spawn so you can't adapt your team composition and starting position, which is a big deal for a "tactics" game. Also add the fact that under the same conditions your characters and the enemy characters are treated differently and have different calculations, meaning that my knight can attack someone and do 30 damage and the enemy knight, with exactly the same equipment as my knight, can attack someone with exactly the same stats as the one I attacked and do 10x more damage... it's infuriating but also not unusual for japanese games of the time to cheat like this.

And best not get me started on those maps where you're stranded alone against an enemy that can 2 shot you, because somehow he does 10x more damage than you, and he gets to act first... Whoever design those needed some serious psych help.

I could also mention the RNG and how this game should be more honestly called Final Fantasy RNG but it's already a long enough post.

So yeah... between FFT and Tactics Ogre go with the latter.
 
Finished Cruelty Squad finally. Some of the levels were a pain in the ass, while some of them make you feel insanely clever once you figure out fast ways to take out all of the targets. It looks like getting 100% is purposely sadistic so I won't be doing that.
 
Still slowly getting through Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, there's parts I enjoy but man this combat is just not it. Also started Dispatch the other day and finished Episode 1, looking forward to play the rest of the episodes when they drop.
 
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Fourth game completed: Watch_Dogs 2

Good open world map, hacking mechanics expanded compared to WD1: drone and jumper greatly expand stealth/non violent posibilities to complete missions. Story is OK, good variety of missions, optional multiplayer on certain missions, lots of customization for characters, weaponry and vehicles. Recommended.
 
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Completed Fantasy Life i. Looks like this is one of those games with a ton of post game as well, definitely not deleting it yet but I am marking it off the list since I saw credits. I never played the 3DS game but I can see why people love this type of thing, very rewarding after a lot of grinding. It's a great game to catch up on podcasts with.
 
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