Community Backlog Blitz Season 5 - Runs October 1 through December 31 with a raffle at the end

beep boop

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Dec 6, 2018
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Continuing to enjoy Guacamelee 2. It’s a lot like the first one but ramps much faster in difficulty, and you get your special moves quicker. I think that was a good choice for a direct sequel.

That said, I’m probably Guacamelee’d out once I finish this. I’d love to see Drinkbox try something else. They’ve gotten what they could out of this formula, I think. Excellent game, no doubt. Slick combat. Clever and fun platforming challenges. But I’d like them to try something entirely different or apply their skills in a game with a new setting.
 
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Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
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I've only been playing Genshin Impact this month (and will likely continue to do so for the foreseeable future :grimacing-face: ), so I haven't thought about my list for this quarter yet, but I definitely do want to play something else as well :D
But probably only short-ish/medium sized games :thinking-face:

Finished 4/5 of my last list, so that was pretty alright.
 

beep boop

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Dec 6, 2018
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As I'm approaching the end of Guacamelee 2, I was wondering if there are any recommended mods for Planescape: Torment. I had a quick look at the ones on Beamdog's blog, but none of them seem all that important. The Tweaks Anthology and Banter Accelerator maybe? Seems odd that a game this old doesn't have a bunch of articles titled FIVE ESSENTIAL MODS FOR PS:T.

Edit: and that's a wrap on Guacamelee 2! Thoroughly enjoyed that. Very breezy, funny gags, satisfying combat and platforming, beautiful art and the soundtrack is no slouch either. All-around just a really good game. I might've preferred slightly more challenging platforming puzzles, but I know people didn't like those all too much in the first game, so maybe they dialed it back a notch in response to that. It's got lots of really challenging stuff in there, but nothing's as intense as the hidden stuff in the Tule Tree from the first one, I think. Maybe I've just gotten better at platformers in the meantime though. All those hours playing Celeste might have paid off! The final boss was also surprisingly easy. Hard to say if it's again me just getting really comfortable with its mechanics (and having played the previous game several times including hard mode) or if the developers decided to ease up a little on the player. Either way, fun game. An easy recommendation for those who enjoyed the first one.
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

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As I'm approaching the end of Guacamelee 2, I was wondering if there are any recommended mods for Planescape: Torment. I had a quick look at the ones on Beamdog's blog, but none of them seem all that important. The Tweaks Anthology and Banter Accelerator maybe? Seems odd that a game this old doesn't have a bunch of articles titled FIVE ESSENTIAL MODS FOR PS:T.

Edit: and that's a wrap on Guacamelee 2! Thoroughly enjoyed that. Very breezy, funny gags, satisfying combat and platforming, beautiful art and the soundtrack is no slouch either. All-around just a really good game. I might've preferred slightly more challenging platforming puzzles, but I know people didn't like those all too much in the first game, so maybe they dialed it back a notch in response to that. It's got lots of really challenging stuff in there, but nothing's as intense as the hidden stuff in the Tule Tree from the first one, I think. Maybe I've just gotten better at platformers in the meantime though. All those hours playing Celeste might have paid off! The final boss was also surprisingly easy. Hard to say if it's again me just getting really comfortable with its mechanics (and having played the previous game several times including hard mode) or if the developers decided to ease up a little on the player. Either way, fun game. An easy recommendation for those who enjoyed the first one.
This may be one of the pages you already found, and I can't speak for it myself, but I somehow remembered it being posted in the decade's old GAF thread about replaying the game so I found the thread and sure enough the link still works. See if any of this looks more like what you were hoping for: Planescape: Torment - Best Mods Guide
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

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And game #4 complete with Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut. My previous save before starting over was from almost five years ago so it was a proper backlog game and glad I got it complete as now I'll be more inclined to start the next Shantae games I own (that are also buried in the backlog). It was simple, easy, and decently fun. It wouldn't be one I'd recommend over other options if someone wanted a Metroidvania style game but at the same time it's a fine game to pick up cheap and hopefully the sequels increase in complexity.
 

Cacher

Romantic Storm
Jun 3, 2020
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At the final chapter of Yakuza 0 now. Going to clear up every side content before going to final battle. Seems like there are still a lot left. I have already spent 70 hours on this game and it looks like I will spend at least 30 - 35 hours more. There is just so much to do in this game but so far I enjoyed every second of it.
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

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At the final chapter of Yakuza 0 now. Going to clear up every side content before going to final battle. Seems like there are still a lot left. I have already spent 70 hours on this game and it looks like I will spend at least 30 - 35 hours more. There is just so much to do in this game but so far I enjoyed every second of it.
When I put together a list of top games of the last decade I put it at #6 (and honestly if I reordered after more time passed it'd probably move up). It's a fantastic game that is still my favorite in the series (having completed up through Yakuza 5 now). I wish I had finished up the substories before moving on but at the time it was my first Yakuza game and I didn't expect I'd stick to the series.
 
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Cacher

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When I put together a list of top games of the last decade I put it at #6 (and honestly if I reordered after more time passed it'd probably move up). It's a fantastic game that is still my favorite in the series (having completed up through Yakuza 5 now). I wish I had finished up the substories before moving on but at the time it was my first Yakuza game and I didn't expect I'd stick to the series.
It's my second Yakuza game after Judgement. I dropped Judgement around 30 hours when I felt a bit bored (maybe because I don't like gaming on PS4 or it being an action game locked to 30 fps only). Meanwhile, Yakuza 0 clicks almost immediately. I love everything, from main story to side story to all the different mini games. I especially love the cabaret management game. Tbh, if they release a standalone spinoff of this management game, I will definitely buy it on day 1. Overall, it really is a fantastic game packed full with amazing content.

Oh, I will also give Judgement another go once it lands on PC. I like Japanese detective drama so its story is still pretty intriguing.
 

BlueOdin

Dec 3, 2018
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Only making slow progress in Resident Evil 7. It's like just when I enjoy only meeting regular enemies for which I need to find something to deal with them easily and feel I can do longer sessions without getting annoyed, the game introduces a character of the Baker family to stalk me in the area. Very annoying. Not scary but just a nuisance.

Still enjoying the puzzles and level-design though
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

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And all done! Game #5 was Hyper Light Drifter and I played through it all today. It continued the streak of the game taking less time than listed on howlongtobeat.com so my short game picks all ended up shorter than I thought they would be.

I had played the first quarter years ago so I started it fresh and going through it again I mostly thought it seemed a decent enough time, and then in the middle I really cooled on it but persevered, and by the end I thought it was decent enough again. I just don't think it feels great to play due to how it handles the animation and timing of attacks. So many times that I got hit by enemies it didn't feel like it was my fault because I'd hit a button and nothing would happen and then once I got hit I'd inevitably take multiple hits or get knocked off the world or whatever.

And glad to be all done so I can focus on 2020 games. And that was game #99 for the year so time to figure out what should be the big #100.
 

Deku

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Oct 19, 2018
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Currently I am playing Deus Ex Mankind Divided. It's going slow, I think. I am doing as much as possible in one playthrough, meaning doing all sidequests, unlocking most achievements, and such. The game is kinda heavy for my computer, it takes time to load the game, switching areas takes a few minutes to load.

I have games that are newer than Mankind Diveded, and they have faster loading times :( The world has a lot of details, but I still don't understand how the new Hitman games which have even more stuff can load faster than Deus Ex :D
 

beep boop

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And all done! Game #5 was Hyper Light Drifter and I played through it all today. It continued the streak of the game taking less time than listed on howlongtobeat.com so my short game picks all ended up shorter than I thought they would be.

I had played the first quarter years ago so I started it fresh and going through it again I mostly thought it seemed a decent enough time, and then in the middle I really cooled on it but persevered, and by the end I thought it was decent enough again. I just don't think it feels great to play due to how it handles the animation and timing of attacks. So many times that I got hit by enemies it didn't feel like it was my fault because I'd hit a button and nothing would happen and then once I got hit I'd inevitably take multiple hits or get knocked off the world or whatever.

And glad to be all done so I can focus on 2020 games. And that was game #99 for the year so time to figure out what should be the big #100.
There’s a bit of a curve to learning the timings, but once I settled into it, I quite liked the pace of the combat. Without discounting what you said, since everyone has different tolerances and experiences, HLD was one of those games where I felt like you could perfect your play and avoid damage entirely, which is something I value a lot. Some games, I find myself calling BS when it feels like there is ‘mandatory’ damage, but I didn’t have that with HLD. I guess you did, however.

Maybe me having played a lot of Monster Hunter and Souls in between my first attempt at the game and my latest made me more receptive to this approach to combat animations. I did remap the right stick to control aiming fully (it acting like holding R + left stick direction) because it felt kind of awkward under the default config. That made quickly swapping between ranged and melee feel much more intuitive.

I also really loved the audiovisual component of the game. Super pretty and I still listen to the soundtrack from time to time. And I enjoyed looking for the hidden stuff in the world. Gave me big Zelda vibes, which I am usually up for.

Currently I am playing Deus Ex Mankind Divided. It's going slow, I think. I am doing as much as possible in one playthrough, meaning doing all sidequests, unlocking most achievements, and such. The game is kinda heavy for my computer, it takes time to load the game, switching areas takes a few minutes to load.

I have games that are newer than Mankind Diveded, and they have faster loading times :( The world has a lot of details, but I still don't understand how the new Hitman games which have even more stuff can load faster than Deus Ex :D
I played a bit of a while ago, and I also some weird technical issues. It definitely didn't perform as well as I'd expected given the visuals. Had some stuttering issues that were independent of the frame rate and stuff like that.
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

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There’s a bit of a curve to learning the timings, but once I settled into it, I quite liked the pace of the combat. Without discounting what you said, since everyone has different tolerances and experiences, HLD was one of those games where I felt like you could perfect your play and avoid damage entirely, which is something I value a lot. Some games, I find myself calling BS when it feels like there is ‘mandatory’ damage, but I didn’t have that with HLD. I guess you did, however.

Maybe me having played a lot of Monster Hunter and Souls in between my first attempt at the game and my latest made me more receptive to this approach to combat animations. I did remap the right stick to control aiming fully (it acting like holding R + left stick direction) because it felt kind of awkward under the default config. That made quickly swapping between ranged and melee feel much more intuitive.
It should be said I'm fairly impatient. But yeah, I know you can perfect things and take little damage. I beat the last three or four bosses largely almost never getting hit. The last boss only hit me with those diamond light attacks because I realized I had no risk of dying any would just heal up through it, heh. But so many times it just felt like my button hits were being eaten because I'd try to dash and nothing would happen or suddenly my third attack just never came out so instead of hitting an opponent I'd take a hit. And once you get hit you can just get screwed over (especially if it's something that does knockback, fuck you crystal floor traps). Hit boxes were also not great. Those floor traps seemed to hit larger than the floor tile showed and I remember the earlier boss with the big sword combo swings would hit me when I clearly wasn't getting hit by the sword because it seemed to fill more space with each hit? It was pretty frustrating.

I get why people could love the game but it very much wasn't what I enjoyed. I think Blizniak in Discord said it's like a one person Children of Morta and in many ways I completely see that with the look of it and the style of combat but in comparison it's a night and day difference in the feel as Morta feels extremely responsive and I always did exactly what I wanted and when I took damage it felt like my fault. Drifter felt sluggish in comparison and far more frustrating due to it often not feeling like my fault when things went poorly.

Disasterpiece does good music, though. And there was plenty of solid art, though I thought all the story sequences or whatever were purely nonsensical. I have no idea what I was meant to get from the story unless it was simply: Wake up amnesiac and....kill things? Like that's as far as I understood it.
 
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beep boop

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There are tablets you can translate for a more direct explanation of the story, but I didn’t really get much of the story either. I did like the general ambiance and imagery of its world. A colorful post-apocalypse.
 
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Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
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Finally made a list
  1. Catherine Classic
  2. Highway Blossoms
  3. Anodyne
  4. Quadrilateral Cowboy
  5. Death end re;Quest
Mostly on the shorter end, as I've basically been almost exclusively playing Genshin impact this month and expect to still play it for some while :grimacing-face:
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

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Finally made a list
  1. Catherine Classic
  2. Highway Blossoms
  3. Anodyne
  4. Quadrilateral Cowboy
  5. Death end re;Quest
Mostly on the shorter end, as I've basically been almost exclusively playing Genshin impact this month and expect to still play it for some while :grimacing-face:
I've played through Highway Blossoms (pleasant but won't blow your mind) and Quadrilateral (pleasant and will blow your mind). I waited a long time to do Quadrilateral Cowboy, did it as one of my first Blitz games actually, and while I was always reluctant to start it up I was angry how long it took me to finally play it since I had a fantastic time with it. It did take a couple levels until I really started figuring out what made it feel special as you do really specific program functions so things are timed and aimed exactly as you want to succeed.
 
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Cacher

Romantic Storm
Jun 3, 2020
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Looks like I won't have the money for Hyrule Warriors, so I am switching my last blitz game to something from the backlog.

The game is called Memoria. Not sure if people here want to see anime stuff posted, so I post about it in the VN thread instead.

 
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Deku

Just nothing
Oct 19, 2018
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Finished Deus Ex Mankind Divided
Also got Pacifist :D


I was also trying to go for Foxiest of the Hound, but some time during the game I triggered an alarm which I did not notice. So I am not going play the game again just for one achievement. It took me almost 29 hours to finish the game with sidequests completed
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

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Sorry for the long delay but for the prior Backlog Blitz there's more than one winner. Accoun won the prize raffle first and I had agreed to wait for their game to get discounted since it goes on sale often and it finally did so today. After the purchase of their prize there's now $26.75 and that goes to the next person in the raffle.

So with congratulations the prize next goes to ganmo with $26.75 available to pick a prize of your choice for a Steam key. The completed game that won the prize for them is Book of Demons! Let me know what region you're in to ensure there aren't any regional issues and also if it's far cheaper to get it in your region we can work something out. Just PM me and we'll get this going.

Also, surprised nobody brought this up wondering what happened to the prize money!
 

Derrick01

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Oct 6, 2018
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I finished ghost of tsushima and finally made some progress on this list. It was a decent game with a solid, enjoyable story and amazing graphics (great first game to showcase my 4k/HDR oled) but falls short of being great because it's insanely repetitive. By the end of the first territory I was already pretty overpowered and had fully upgraded gear and then there were two more equally large areas to go through. It just dragged on waaaay too long.
 
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Accoun

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Dec 9, 2018
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Sorry for stalling, everyone. Pretty sure that's the longest the game went without being on sale anywhere since the pandemic started.

Of course it had to happen just before the last season ended. Because 2020, I guess :blobweary:
 
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ganmo

My Neighbour Totoro
Dec 10, 2018
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Sorry for the long delay but for the prior Backlog Blitz there's more than one winner. Accoun won the prize raffle first and I had agreed to wait for their game to get discounted since it goes on sale often and it finally did so today. After the purchase of their prize there's now $26.75 and that goes to the next person in the raffle.

So with congratulations the prize next goes to ganmo with $26.75 available to pick a prize of your choice for a Steam key. The completed game that won the prize for them is Book of Demons! Let me know what region you're in to ensure there aren't any regional issues and also if it's far cheaper to get it in your region we can work something out. Just PM me and we'll get this going.

Also, surprised nobody brought this up wondering what happened to the prize money!
woop woop, that was a nice surprise to hear. book of demons was certainly a very grindy game I played. but thanks to it I got win.
I'll PM you privately :)
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

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And ganmo made their prize selection and we have one more draw left for a smaller game choice. The final winner for last season's Blitz is Futaleufu and you have $8.76 to pick a game. Just PM me the game and your region and we can put things together. And anything left of the prize after this will be added onto the current Blitz.

Congrats to Futaleufu. It was Deus Ex: Mankind Divided that the draw landed on. Woo!
 

Futaleufu

Laughing Chojin
Mar 14, 2019
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And ganmo made their prize selection and we have one more draw left for a smaller game choice. The final winner for last season's Blitz is Futaleufu and you have $8.76 to pick a game. Just PM me the game and your region and we can put things together. And anything left of the prize after this will be added onto the current Blitz.

Congrats to Futaleufu. It was Deus Ex: Mankind Divided that the draw landed on. Woo!
Thank you, I'll PM you
 

Derrick01

MetaMember
Oct 6, 2018
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I didn't think I would get to pathfinder during this time since it's so long but I got into a groove with it for the past week and finished it tonight. I'm just glad I was able to finish it this time and my saves didn't corrupt costing me another 60 hours :|
 

Parsnip

Riskbreaker
Sep 11, 2018
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Finland
Started Nelke, and I had forgotten that they stopped doing English voices in Atelier after Firis. Suddenly I feel much more of a weeb then ever before.
 

Deku

Just nothing
Oct 19, 2018
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Finished my second game of the Blitz challenge. It's Forgotton Anne. It had an interesting story. The gameplay was a bit slow though, but still a fun platformer
 
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ganmo

My Neighbour Totoro
Dec 10, 2018
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I didn't post my list of games

1. Tales of Berseria
2. Vampyr
3. Sleeping Dogs
4. Batman Arkham City
5. Batman Arkham Knight

I'm still on the first game. The game is really lenghty... 🙄
 
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Madventure

The Angel of Deaf
Nov 17, 2018
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I beat Styx: Master of Shadows today!

It's really fun, best description I can come up with for it is pretty much a thief or dishonored type game with it leaning more towards dishonored with it very much having skills and points rewarded to you for missions based upon not being detected doing certain requirements and not killing people

You can replay missions though to do those things and even sort of speed run through stuff (One of the points given things is beat the mission under a certain time requirement)

One of the things that was in the back of my mind that I couldn't quite remember was if it was a prequel or not to of Orcs of Men (A super great game that a lot of people give up on because the combat/controls are weird as shit)
Which is a resounding yes, Don't know about the second game though if it's right after the first styx game or the orcs and men. Tempted to find out and swap a game around.
Anyways yeah if you like dishonored/thief etc throw the game on your to play list!

Coincidentally it wasn't even on my to play list so I gotta swap shit around anyways Lol
 

Deku

Just nothing
Oct 19, 2018
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Switching Dragons Dogma to Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
I already got two other games that are quite long. So I am taking out Dragons Dogma and replaced with a bit shorter game
 

ganmo

My Neighbour Totoro
Dec 10, 2018
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1. Tales of Berseria
2. Vampyr
3. Sleeping Dogs
4. Batman Arkham City
5. Batman Arkham Knight

One game down, and started to play Vampyr ;)
 

Derrick01

MetaMember
Oct 6, 2018
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Finished spyro 3 and got all 105 achievements in the trilogy. I don't think the series aged that well but it was a decent collectathon I suppose. 4/5 done on my blitz, only Remnant left.
 

Spamlynguist

I can never decide on an avatar
Dec 31, 2018
1,022
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25
Swapping out Alwa's Awakening and Volume as I'm not really feeling them atm.

Will be replaced with Shardlight and Gato Roboto.
 

Ascheroth

Chilling in the Megastructure
Nov 12, 2018
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Finished game #1, Anodyne! :heroblob:
That was weird and kinda creepy, but the good kind of weird. Very interesting experience. Didn't do the post-game content though.

Also almost done with game #2, Highway Blossoms. Pretty fun and cute VN, except when there's drama. I'm really bad with that kind of drama so my playthrough always slows to a massive crawl at those times :grimacing-face:
 

Derrick01

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Oct 6, 2018
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I'm swapping out remnant from the ashes for tales of vesperia DE. I gave remnant about 5 hours but it was so painfully awful I couldn't take anymore. I liked the shooting and movement, but everything else was dreadful.
 
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Wibblewozzer

Wibblewozzer

Robot on the inside
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I forgot to post something to say we were now in November and one month down. So now we're 1/3 of the way through plus a couple more days. Been fairly active with folks completing a bunch of games. I mistakenly thought we had the same amount of participants as last time but we're one shy. Hopefully we get a late straggler!

Also, Futaleufu made their selection for the prize as we were waiting for some Steam friend stuff and sales so last season's prizes are all complete! That does mean we had $2.26 leftover which gets added to this season's total so we're at $22.26 currently. Ideally that'll also go up before the end of the year, too!
 

ganmo

My Neighbour Totoro
Dec 10, 2018
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1. Tales of Berseria
2. Vampyr

3. Sleeping Dogs
4. Batman Arkham City
5. Batman Arkham Knight

Second game finished.

So a little bit of what I thought of it. The story itself was quite interesting. But dialogs sometime felt like not flowing that well.. And then it was kind of difficult some time to find the places as there's no mini map when roaming around in the city. Although it was not a very big city to roam around in it could become kind of tedious task when I had to back track places to get something. So it is sad that the developers didn't include some fast travel system in the game.

In the overall I thought it was OK game. Possible to 100% if I wanted, but I don't think I'm going to go for the second round ^^
If the game was like a Telltale game it would have been possible I play I second round I though for completion :unsure:
 

gabbo

MetaMember
Dec 22, 2018
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Toronto
Finally beat Catherine. I'm glad I powered through, the final few levels really did feel like achievements when I beat them, and I played well enough to get the ending I wanted. Maybe one day I'll go back and play a lothario and see how differently it plays out.
Now to see if I can keep myself from being a little baby and finish Alien:Isolation ...
 
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Derrick01

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Oct 6, 2018
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Finished tales of vesperia DE in about 45 hours. I did some side stuff but mostly stuck to the story as I wasn't really feeling the game much. It also has that jrpg issue where everyone talks WAY too much. I don't need to hear from all 8 party members on every mundane sentence.

With that my 5 backlog games are complete and just in time for the flood of new games.
 

Futaleufu

Laughing Chojin
Mar 14, 2019
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Finished 3rd game, Sniper Elite III. Kind of short and a bit more janky than SE V2 but over all a good AA experience.

I should be playing Lords of the Fallen next, along the DLCs of DmC and SE III.