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[Sidney Prescott]

Welcome to the 2023 Gaming Backlog OT!


​

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS THREAD?
The goal is to play those unplayed games that have been sitting in your library for a while, or maybe even games you picked up on sale recently and haven't played yet.

THE RULES:
There's not really any, although the general goal is to not buy any or as little new releases as possible in 2023. Instead favouring those games that have been left untouched or you've been wanting to play for a while (including those that may pop up in a sale)

Mini-FAQ:

Do I need to make a list?
There's no need to make a list of games, unless that's something you'd want to do to help you in your quest to complete them.

How many games do I need to play?
As many as you can manage, quality over quantity. Make sure you're enjoying the games you do play or maybe swap out for another in your backlog if you're not feeling it.

Do I need to review the games I play?
It's appreciated, although not a neccessity as not everybody has the time to write up a full review of every game they play. A couple lines about what you thought of the game or just simply stating you completed something is fine.

REWARD TIERS
1. No new games played in 2023.

2. 10 Backlog Games in 2023.

3. The "We salute you, Tier -- 1 backlog game completed per month

INTERNET RESOURCES AND NEOGAF COMPANION THREADS
How Long to Beat -- As the name states, this website has a giant catalog of games and the approximate amount of time it should take you to beat them. It's a useful resource if you want.
Backloggery -- As the name implies, a place to manage your backlog.

 

[Sidney Prescott]

Anybody is free to join at any time, but tagging those that already expressed interest to me in the previous thread.

LegionX
DelireMan7
Aurelius

Good luck all on your quest to play those games and I hope the OP is good enough for now!

 

[LegionX]

Yep, I'm back in, I'm going for Tiers 2 and 3, while I haven't played a 2023 release yet, I don't want to completely limit myself to that on the chance something comes out that I just really want to play (odds are Spiderman 2 will be out this year and I'll get that one as an example)

It's late where I am currently, but I'll write up the games I've completed so far this year when I get a chance

actually... scratch that.. I've already completed 13 backlog games this year... so Tier 2 is done already!

 

[DelireMan7]

Nice to see it return.

I'll write wrap up of my games.

I am not so much into Backlog at the moment but more on modern games I missed (Resident Evil OGs and remakes at the moment, next is REmake 3).

I still prioritizing old games.
But I guess Final Fantasy XVI and Hollow Knight Silksong will be exceptions to the "no 2023 games" rules.

 

[Sleepwalker]

I'm in, hopefully go for tier 2 and 3 cuz 2023 has a ton of good games coming up haha

 

[Sidney Prescott]

Yeah, I'm already out of the running for Tier 1 as I played and bought Resident Evil 4 Remake the other month. From now though, I likely won't buying many new 2023 games, that was the one I was mainly waiting for.

I think 10 games from my library is very doable as I've been building up a steady collection from all the PSN/Steam sales.

Right now I'm playing through Tormented Souls. It's a survival horror game that plays like the old school style Resident Evil games. Never got around to fully finishing it, so I'm giving it a proper go.

 

[SpiceRacz]

Been chipping away at my backlog since the start of 2023. Games completed so far:

Link's Awakening Remake
Bloodstained Curse of The Moon 2
WarioWare Inc.
Gato Roboto
La Mulana
Super Mario 3D World Bowsers Fury
Severance: Blade of Darkness

Gonna have to take a break for ToTK and Silk Song, if it comes out this year.

 

[Aurelius]

After clearing most of my backlog last year and the beginning of this year, I had only 1 unplayed game left. My main goal this year is not to get it out of hand again.

Current Backlog:

PlayStation 5

• Demons Souls Remake
• The Division 2 currently playing
• Resident Evil 2 Remake
• Days Gone done!
• Divinity 2: Original Sin gave up
• Psychonauts 2 done!
• Yakuza: Like a Dragon done!
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider done!

Nintendo Switch

• The Legand of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (new)
• Advance Wars 1+2 Re-boot Camp (new)
• Metroid Dread Remastered (new)
• Dredge (new) done!
• Luigi's Mansion 3 done!

Spoiler: SPOILER: 2020 - 2022 Backlog and Games completed/given up

PlayStation

• A Plague Tale: Innocence done!
• Metro Exodus done!
• Stray done!
• Persona 5: The Royal done!
• Rise of the Tomb Raider done!
• Yakuza Kiwami 2 done!
• Yakuza Kiwami gave up
• Subnautica done!
• Snowrunner gave up
• Persona 5 Strikers done!

Nintendo Switch

• Metroid Dread done!
• Mario Odyssey done!
• Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle: Donkey Kong Adventure DLC done!
• The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles done!
• Street of Rage 4 gave up
• Return to Monkey Island done!
• Valkyria Chronicles 4 done!
• Kirby and the Forgotten Land done!
• Into The Breach gave up
• Return of the Obra Dinn done
• Katana Zero done
• Animal Crossing gave up
• Civilization VI done (but still playing now and then)
• Hotshot Racing (new) gave up

PSVita

• Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions done!
• Stardew Valley done!
• Yomawari: Night Alone done!
• Final Fantasy X HD done!

 

[RavageX]

I have completed two switch games, Persona 4 Golden and Deadly Premonition.

I haven't decided what to finish next, but these were not completed to 100%. Maybe later.

Persona 4 is the first game of the series that I have completed. I own 2 through 5. I have to say the story is every bit as good as people say. Characters are likable and you get to know them all if you put the time in. I didnt think I would enjoy it as much as I did.

Deadly Premonition....what a surprise. Really quirky but the story wrapped up pretty well considering. Lots of, "Ohhhhh ok, I see." moments. Missed a lot of the side stuff and may or may not go back to it. Not exactly a happy ending, and I kinda like it that way.

 

[LegionX]

OK, time to start this! I'll begin with what I completed in January... which has so far been my most prolific month by far (christmas/new year holidays a strong reason why)

I'll do half now and half in a follow up post

1. Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC)

Getting close to finishing off playing every Unreal game now... one to go! It's still a fun FPS to play, the biggest challenge with playing through the single player campaign (which is basically just a collection of maps/game types, no actual story) was the fact most modes are designed to be multiplayer, so you play with a group of bots... and some missions could be really challenging because you were relying on your bot teammates, and they could be highly unrelaible.... But it wasn't TOO bad... aside from the very final mission, which was a 1v1 match... that was just..... impossible for me... the difficulty jump was insane... you could get the first 2 or 3 kills without massive challenge but then the AI would kick it up and become almost impossible to beat, sudden perfect aim etc... I tried many times and very got close... in the end had to cheese it but killing the AI once, then hiding on a ledge that people online found out wasn't part of the AI pathing.. so it couldn't see you... and then waiting for the match to time out and win 1 to 0.. All up, enjoyed my 14 hours playing through the campaign though

2. Penumbra Black Plague (PC)

After playing the first of the 3 Penumbra games last year it wasn't a huge gap before moving to this one.. Unlike the first game, combat was taken away as an option, but honestly... it was quite rare that I found that to be much of an issue, mostly the enemies were very easy to avoid so I didn't get much in the way of "horror" from this one... Was good to continue the story and get a few answers to things from the last game though... all up, was only a 5 hour experience but I did enjoy it, dated as it may look these days

3. Mass Effect Definitive Edition (PS4, played on PS5)

My first Mass Effect experience.... I was actually fairly impressed with the look of it, having thought I'd read from reviews that the port/upgrade was really minor... sure it was far from looking like a brand new modern release, but it was solid! And the horror stories of driving around in the Mako, I assume they must have fixed that cause I didn't mind those sections.... I didn't find the story as big or as expansive as I'd heard in the past... but I did enjoy my time with it... I'm planning on playing the sequel some time this year as I hear that was a big jump up in quality too

4. LEGO Pirates Of The Carribean (PC)

I never have much to say about these games, cause at least the ones from this era, were really all very similar... play 6 missions per movie, still back before voice acting, and yea... it's a LEGO game.. played one you've played them all, from this era at least... not played any newer ones yet... so if you like simple gameplay and just collecting a LOT of blocks as you break almost anything on screen, it's a bit of mindless fun, but that's about it..

That's half of my January, will post the next 4 in a day or so!

 

[RavageX]

Edit

PC: working on Witcher 2 and Tales of Symphonia (lost interest for now)

PS4/5: Lost Judgment and Yakuza ishin (lost interest for now)....Persona Dancing all night

Switch: Tales of Vesperia, Persona 5 is on the backburner. So is Dragon Quest, Octopath Traveler (started up again).

3DS: Bravely Default and Radiant Historia

Vita: Odin Sphere

No rush on the 3DS/Vita

I plan to stick with these for a bit.

 

[DelireMan7]

My challenge :
No 2023 games. Final Fantasy XVI and Silksong will be exception. Resident Evil 4 Remake might be too.

Games completed (from the start of this thread):

• Resident Evil 3 Remake (5h12)

For context, this year I played Resident Evil Remake, 2, Nemesis and REmake 2.
I loved this game. Short, action packed and cinematic. Nemesis is very scary even if a lot scripted compare to the OG but it makes all his encounters memorable. Had a lot of fun with this game.

Very good game but questionable remake. REmake 2 was a very good remake, extremely faithful to the OG but still succeed to make its own thing. REmake 3 can be felt like a quick cash grab surfing on the success of REmake 2 for long time fan.

What to play next :

I want to make a small break from the RE franchise and go with Dragon's Dogma. It's been for a long time on my radar and heard only good things about it. And with Final Fantasy XVI around the corner and the fact that's it's the same guy responsible for the combat system in both game, it sounds like a good idea to do it now
Even so the action of REmake 3 really hyped me up for Resident Evil 4 (OG). I'll think a bit about it.

 

[LegionX]

OK, Here's my second half of January..

As mentioned in last years thread, at some point I loaded up my PS3 and had forgotten I had about 100 indie games installed on it, mostly completely unplayed, this explains the next game at least

5. Snakeball (PS3)

So this is basically a 3rd person view variant of snake.... kind of.... and all up... it's really not very good.... There's a number of different variants of the game but basically you collect orbs and it makes your snake longer and longer, but you can run over "goals" and if the first orb in line is of that colour, it will drop in and give you points, you also can shoot the front orb at the goal... there's also multiple weapons depending on the mode... The biggest issue I found is.. it's just all slow and pedestrian, it makes the game boring to play.... I only played it single player, but it does have local multiplayer if you really want to punish your friends.... not recommended....

6. Penumbra Requiem (PC)

The last of the three Penumbra games.... but this one really felt like a waste of time... 95% of the story is put across the first 2 games, and this third one apparently was a contractual obligation, where they just made a bunch of separate puzzle levels out of sections that didn't make it in to the first 2 games, so the atmosphere is gone, the enemies are gone, and it's purely work out the puzzle to progress... Took me 4 hours and it wasn't an overly enjoyable 4 hours either after the first 2 games!

7. Halo 2 - Anniversary (PC)

After playing Halo 1 and not really getting what all the fuss was about, the sequel was clearly a step up, better paced and just better design in general.. but I still can't say it excited me that greatly! The combat is good but I've never really found the weapons themselves that enjoyable to use... I don't know what it is.... I did buy the MCC on Steam so I do plan to keep running through the games, but I certainly wasn't amped to jump right in to 3 after finishing 2.... shrug!

8. The Curse Of Monkey Island (PC)

Finally I got to this one... after being a fan of the first 2 way back in the 90's, the fact I then bought the boxed copy of this on PC but never played more than 15 minutes didn't make much sense.... but move to now and I've played it via Steam.... Considering just how low res the graphics are, they hold up surprisingly well!! I thought the story/plot/locations were all good, and I enjoyed my time playing through the game (I do admit I may have visited the walkthrough guide a few times though). I think this game would really do well with a HD remake (I doubt there's anything to upres, you'd need to draw/paint fresh HD versions of the artwork, which is likely why it never happened). I've got Escape from Monkey Island to play through as well, but I'm a little worried that one will be poor, being an early 3D game where the control scheme was also changed to be console friendly.... we shall see!

 

[Aurelius]

I don't feel like playing anything before Zelda comes out.

 

[LegionX]

time for my February update.... a massive drop off from January.. just 2 short VR games...

9. Loading Human - Chapter 1 (PSVR, played on PS5)

This was a launch title for the PSVR, and obviously didn't do that well as we never did get a Chapter 2. Graphically it's not bad, and they've tried to tell an interesting story and have some interesting gameplay, but it's all massively let down by the controls, being a launch title it's from a time when devs were still trying to work out how VR games should control... and this just... isn't it..... it's hard to explain but it's all just.... weird.... like you hold the Move pointing behind you to go backwards, but of course the PSVR likes to track movement via the camera, so pointing the Move away from it is a bad idea.... turning and just trying to walk up stairs or similar is a major pain... All up, not recommended, they never did patch the controls or improve it, so I guess they walked away from this one quickly

10. Space Rift - Chapter 1 (PSVR, played on PS5)

Another Chapter 1 game that never got a pt2... Compared to Loading Human, this is a much lower budget game, graphically, voice actor wise, everything... However, I enjoyed it more than that... It's a space sim where you pilot a craft and it basically switches between sections where you are trying to mine asteroids to get the resources to upgrade your ship, with it then swapping to combat as you get attacked. It's all very simplistic, and from looking online there's very little about it, so it must have sold even worse.... but yea, it's a short experience, I think 4 hours or so, but I did enjoy my time with it

 

[Nitty_Grimes]

Dead Island - PS4.

 

[Banjo64]

i've sold my series s and my ps5 is on the market, easiest way to kill my backlog i suppose

i will rebuy a PS5, maybe late 2024. if they release a slim. main game to tackle would be Horizon FW but i really don't think i care to play it. only other games that interest me are Factions, Armoured Core and From's next projects. it can all wait.

Switch backlog consists of Hollow Knight, Bastian, Transistor and Cuphead. I'd like to get through a couple of them in 2023.

 

[LegionX]

Switch backlog consists of Hollow Knight, Bastian, Transistor and Cuphead. I'd like to get through a couple of them in 2023.

I'd suggest Bastion from that lot, it's the oldest one but equally, it's not actually a very long game so you can get through it pretty quickly most likely!

 

[Sidney Prescott]

I finished Tormented Souls. Pretty good game, I did have to pull up a guide a couple times for the puzzles but for the most part I did better than I expected on those. It took me back to the Resident Evil days.

Next up, I'm planning to go back to Borderlands 1 GOTY Edition. I bought it on sale and got a fair bit in to it, but I got side-tracked with other games and forgot about it.

 

[LegionX]

OK, Time for March... only 2 games again....

11. Enchanted Arms (PS3)

This ended up being the first From Software game I've ever completed (or even played I think??).. but this one is not like their modern style.. this one is a more traditional, turn based JRPG... It's based on you collecting and using "Golems" as party members, as well as some Human characters you start with and find along the way... The Golems you can add by finding them as mini boss battles generally slightly off the normal path, or by purchasing them in shops.. you then need to have enough materials to create them.... so I guess it's kind of like the Persona games etc in that sense.. All up, while the story/characters can be a bit over the top and cringy, and the graphics are very much of the early ps3 variants... looking quite low res and basic.... the actual gameplay kept me entertained all the way through... Enjoyed my time with this one!

12. Crystal Rift (PSVR played on PS5)

Another early VR game, and likely one not a huge number of people played... It's a pretty simple first person, grid based dungeon game, very retro and kind of like games I played way back in my Amiga days, like Eye of the Beholder.... but simpler... The game is fully playable outside of VR, but I imagine it'd then just feel like a cheap knock off game... but in VR for whatever reasoin I really quite liked it... Graphics are basic, enemies don't look that impressive, but going through the dungeons and working out how to find the next key to unlock the door you saw earlier etc was fun. The only negative was the final few dungeons (you basically are doing floors, at the end of each level there's stairs down to the next floor/level), the art style and enemies changed, and it's just SUPER dark and strains your eyes to see (in VR at least) and the enemy numbers go right up.... ends in a bit of a dissapointing fashion... but up until then I was having a really good time with it!

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Backlog Wise been playing Suikoden II

Next up

Persona (PSP)
Persona 2 Innocent Sin (PSP)
Persona 2 Eternal Punishment (PS1)
Chaos;head (Switch)
Muv-Luv Games (Steam)
Utawarerumono Games (Steam)
Bravely Default (3DS)
Detective Pikachu (3DS)
Fantasy Life (3DS)
Symphony of The Night (PS4)
GrimGrimoire OnceMore (Switch)
Tactics Ogre Reborn (Switch)
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trilogy (Switch)
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (Switch)
Resonance of Fate (Steam)
Shenmue 1, 2, 3 (Steam)
Elden Ring (Steam)
Yokai Watch 3 (3DS)

 

[Joramun]

Games that were already on the waiting list:

• Alan Wake - need to finish this game. Played it on the 360 but never finished it
• Xenoblades 3 - never played
• Mass Effect - never played

Games that went on the waiting list instantly because of Diablo 4:

• Tears of the Kingdom

 

[DelireMan7]

My challenge :
No 2023 games. Final Fantasy XVI and Silksong will be exception. Resident Evil 4 Remake might be too.

Games completed (from the start of this thread):

• Resident Evil 3 Remake (5h12)
• Dragon's Dogma (around 25/30h)

Finally got to play it. Very interesting game filled with good and unique ideas : meaningful day/night cycle (night really impaired your vision and makes encounters at night more dangerous), character creation impacting gameplay (heavier is your character and slower you recover stamina but can carry more among other features...), climbing on big monster to reach weak points, some monster are strogner depending on your genders and those on your party...
And of course the Pawn system ! You basically create another character (a pawn) that will follow you and combat with you. You can summon pawns of others players to reach a party of 4. Pawn gains knowledge on monsters, quest, areas and informed you (or other players) of weak point, hint to continue the quest, hidden location... IF they have the knowledge.

And the vocation (classes) system is really addictive. You can always change your vocation (among 9) and the one of you pawn (among 6). Unlocking skills and passive that you can keep for others vocation. You can for example spend some time on a Fighter class to unlock the passive that increase your HP and then switch to a Mage class to have a tankier mage.

Combat is really good. Open world is interesting with a lot to discover by yourself. But if you want to do everything it might take some time. I personally mainly follow the main quest for once. Did some sidequests especially at the beginning but then mainly stayed on the main path. I had the feeling I would never finish the game if I went for every sidequests and explore all the map.
I was happy to see some consequences from sidequests. Like I helped a guy to retrieve an ancient tome and then during a main mission he showed up with the said tome and gave me a good hand for a boss fight.

I also like the fact that you can miss stuff : at several point of the story, side mission will change and some will disappear forever. It gives a good feeling of the time advancing.

It also have one of the best and most epic Dragon fight I have ever seen.

It's a wonderful game but not a perfect one. It remains a JRPG and while the combat is good but most of the time the encounter are really easy (but still enjoyable). The big creatures (cyclops, trolls...) are always a pleasure to fight. Also some quests are just very basic fetch quest but some others are really interesting. Also the "post game" part is a bit weird and boring (like the final quest to access the ending).
Also a LOT of inventory management that annoyed me quite a bit on the long run.

Overall a pretty good game and looking for the sequel !

What to play next :

It was suppose to be Resident Evil 4 (OG) but with the release of Jedi : Survivor I checked some gameplay and combat looks so good. So I want to do Jedi : Fallen Order now.

 

[jufonuk]

I didn’t complete as such but got to the credits of dead cells. I understand it’s game that requires numerous run throughs

I also got to the end credits of Zelda BotW

As for no new games this year.
Hmm maybe maybe not.

Bolt gun
AEW game both seem like they are up my alley

Maybe also a few older games on sale.

I am not sure wether to sell the Witcher 3 on switch and a few other of my games BotW was amazing for a long game it didn’t have too much inventory and other things. It felt streamlined. If the Witcher is too fiddly I make just sell it as I don’t think I can commit such a long time to a game. Or maybe I try it for a few hours this weekend and see.

 

[LegionX]

Next up

Wow... looking at that list.. I sure hope you have a tonne of spare time coming up in the rest of the year to get through that lot!!

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

Wow... looking at that list.. I sure hope you have a tonne of spare time coming up in the rest of the year to get through that lot!!

Same here, I do a mixture of videogames, watching stuff, and reading in my free time. I don't expect to get to every game I listed in this year.

 

[LegionX]

So in April... it gets worse... only 1 game! And that was a throw away short game I jumped on near the end of the month just to keep my 1 backlog game a month thing ticking over.....

13. Alpha Prime (PC)

This is an old 2007 era FPS game that I must have picked up as part of a bundle or something, as I have no memory of ever specifically buying it... for an old game, surprisingly it natively supported 2K resolution and actually didn't look THAT bad graphically. It wasn't exactly an FPS given a massive budget, so the voice acting and plot are... pretty terrible to be honest... but I didn't mind the 6 hours or so it took to get through. The biggest annoyance/issue is it's old style in that there's no recovering health, you need to pick up health packs.... which would be fine, I'm used to the older style, but the problem is the enemies have insane reaction times and accuracy, to the point you can open a door and just from standing there lose half your health in 2 seconds by being hit by enemies you haven't even spotted yet. Lastly the enemies don't really react to being shot themselves so it's haed to tell if you are actually hitting/damaging them until they just go down... All up.... I'd certainly not recommend anybody specifically buy the game.... but as something I just randomly accrued at some point in the past... it... wasn't terrible?

 

[DelireMan7]

My challenge :
No 2023 games. Final Fantasy XVI and Silksong will be exception. Resident Evil 4 Remake might be too.

Games completed (from the start of this thread):

• Resident Evil 3 Remake (5h12)
• Dragon's Dogma (around 25/30h)
• Star Wars Jedi : Fallen Order

I usually don't rate games but let's go straight to the point for this one. I'll give a very generous 7/10 on this one. Without the Star Wars franchise it would be a 6 maybe 5.

Maybe my expectations were wrong. I was expecting a very linear Beat'em all but it turns out, there is a lot to explore... but nothing interesting to see or find. Just skins... for your poncho (which is horrible and I was playing without one so...), your droid, your ship (and none of them were good in my eye), lots of parts for your lightsaber (I find it cool to customize it but let's be honest, while playing you never see the handle so... And you don't find cristals to change colors of the blade... You just get all the colors at late mandatory story point).
Speaking of exploration : map is awful ! They went for the "Star Wars blue hologram" style but on some planet, with a lot of path, it becomes unreadable. (I spent 30 min trying to get back to my ship once) First time I wish there was a fast travel mechanic in a game.

This game has good lightsaber and Force power actions. It feels really good to be a Jedi decimating foes... but that's mainly against humanoid character and especially stormtroopers (Deflecting blaster shot and sending them back feels soooo good !). Fights against animals and beasts are annoying for me.

There is few lightsaber duels and they are not good in my opinion. Most of them are against double blade users and they spend their time spinning around their blades so it makes it really difficulty to know when the actual attack (with an actual hitbox) is coming and parrying it. Add to that the fact you can't stagger them consistently when hitting them and it becomes really frustrating fights. If you face me against another humanoid lightsaber user which I am supposed to be on part with, make them follow the same "rules" !

Lots of "assisted" platforming, which is a good thing for me because I hate platforming but at too many occurrences Cal was refusing to catch a rope or ledge that he usually does.
Also fuck all those sliding sequences with bad controls.

I am usually not demanding on technical aspect of games but here there is a lots of visuals bugs that troubles me. (some jarring pop in, enemies floating half meter above the ground, a flying enemy falling in the air then hitting an "invisible floor" and then standing like it was a concrete floor)

So yeah... At some fun with my lightsaber but was annoyed by all the rest. Almost dropped it at the end. I'll not play the sequel before a long time I guess xD

What to play next :

I might take a break before Final Fantasy XVI. Even if I want to play the demo before deciding if I take it or not. I don't want to rush Resident Evil 4 (OG) so I'll wait for this one.
I might (re)play some really short games like Journey or Last Guardian (also have to check my PS plus games, there's probably some candidates here) before FFXVI release.

 

[RavageX]

Apparently I'm just bad at this.

To update....I'm still working on the same damn games from my earlier posts.

Switch: Only Octopath Traveler.
Got stuck temporarily on a couple of bosses and took time to explore side quests. Apparently the game has a sub-job feature that I have yet to even unlock, and im on chapter 4 with all my characters.

PC: Not a damn thing story-wise. Got side tracked with WWE 2K23 and creating wrestlers.

PS5: Lost Judgement. Been taking time with the side stories and cases. Hit the main story from time to time. I feel that the Yakuza series and this is heading in a direction Im not sure im fond of.

And thats it! Pretending all the other games i have dont exist.

 

[LegionX]

My May update is as bad as my April one! one small game again! It's not to say it was the only game I was playing... but the main game I was playing was taking a lot of my time so I again jumped on this one to get SOMETHING done....

14. Hyper Void (PSVR, played on PS5)

This is quite a basic shmup type game.... I actually originally got it from PS+ for the PS3.... but they at some point ported it to PS4, and also added a VR mode, and made it cross-buy so I got the upgrade for free. To be honest, playing this is VR vs 2D is barely different, it's probably the first game with VR mode where it really hasn't enhanced anything... As I said tho, it's a shmup type game with different weapon types all directly available by pressing different face buttons, they all have a cool down type feature and have different benefits/flaws.. as the game progresses it adds enemies more susceptable to certain weapons, and at one point, invulnerable to all but the right type (thankfully colour coordinated in those cases). While your ship only ever moves in a 2D plane, left or right, sometimes that literally does mean left to right, but sometimes that's turned in to a circle around the edge of the screen, or maybe vertical down one side etc... Every few levels you get a boss level. Now I have to admit I didn't actually get to the end of this game... but I got as far as my ability allowed me, I think for progress the last trophy unlocked only 1.2% of people had, and those that completed all levels were 0.6% from memory.. so it's a challenging game (and likely most people would have played it once or twice and then decided it wasn't for them... Anyways.... I've said too much for what is quite a simple game.... wouldn't really recommend it... but was looking for something to use the VR headset with, and I didn't have to pay anything!

 

[Sidney Prescott]

Sorry for the lack of updates on my end, I've been swamped with work and real life stuff lately. Still found the time to play some games though!

I ended up putting Borderlands GOTY back on the shelf for now. Just wasn't really feeling it even though I like the game a lot. I wanted to play something a lot more linear and story focused.

I'm doing Uncharted: Lost Legacy right now. It's pretty good as far as spin-off's go and I always liked Chloe Frazer as a character. Obviously it's not as meaty as the other main-line Uncharted games as expected but as an added bonus, I really like it a lot. It's cool to play someone other than Nathan Drake too, feels like a breath of fresh air.

 

[LegionX]

Seems I did my dissapearing act again from here.. and this time everybody else did too! So time for an update and we'll see if that kicks anybody else back in to action

Games I completed in June

15. Earth 2140 (PC)

This is an early RTS game from when things first started kicking off and the genre was rapidly growing (late 90's), and it ended up being a much bigger and longer challenge than I'd expected.. Checking Steam and I logged over 61 hours to complete the two main campaigns... Haven't touched the DLC campaigns yet....
While I certainly enjoyed the game mostly, it being an early release for the genre means there were a lot of things that slowed the game down that newer titles fixed. The general build speed of units and resource gathering is just a bit too slow to begin with... so as an example, the same kind of map sized mission in a C&C game would probably take half the time, then there are bigger issues like you not being able to transport bigger mechs/tanks to other islands, nor buildings to create them..... and the units you DO get to transport units can only transport one at a time... so any map requiring you to attack a base on a different island would take forever just with the mechanic of transporting over smaller troops... and then you'd be up against the bigger mechs/tanks of the enemy that you couldn't transport over.. And for some reason they also made a few maps that were just filled with single small resource blocks to collect, that the AI wasn't smart enough to do itself.... so you'd have to spend forever manually collecting these resources to be able to build what you needed.... All up it sounds like a lot of complaining... but I did enjoy playing the game... but with a few tweaks I think it would have taken about 25 hours to complete, and been a much better game for it... this is the danger of playing very early games in a genre I guess!

16. Unreal Tournament 3 (PC)

Finishing off this series now... (Yes they did start on a 4th game and even released an early access version, but it was cancelled before official release so I don't count it). There isn't a tonne more for me to say compared to UT2004, as it really does continue on from that.. They DID give the single player campaign a little more effort this time though.... in that they tried to add a story with cut scenes etc... but in reality it's still just doing a tonne of missions against AI instead of humans.... And I still think I enjoy the non-vehicle modes more.... which means only 1 in 5 missions or so.... but all up... it's prettier than 2004... still plays very well... so there's little to complain about aside from the fact Epic have abandoned it... and I had to modify it to even allow me to play it and save progress without playing it online after they delisted it and turned the servers off!

 

[LegionX]

Well... my last post didn't seem to bring anything back to life.. so let's try again!

Only one game completed in July

17. Amnesia : The Dark Descent (PC)

Finally I got to the game that I think pretty much started a bunch of streamers careers, screaming away to this one... As the first new IP since the developers Penumbra trilogy, it's clear that it runs on the same engine and is quite a similar game with the same physics based system of opening drawers, doors, moving things etc. I quite enjoyed my time with the game, the only thing that kind of surprised me is how NOT scary I found it... I've played some other games that can have a really creepy atmosphere, and know this one was at one point considered the scariest.. but.... I never felt very threatened by the enemies or the atmosphere/sounds.... perhaps it's just me.... All up I enjoyed my time with the game though, and my timing was great because it got updated with Steam Workshop support and what looks like hundreds of 3rd party campaigns/levels/mods/whatever are being put up that can be installed/added ay just a few clicks.. so I'll keep the game installed and maybe play around with some of those as well.. (Won't add them here as completed games though)

 

[RavageX]

To update:

Switch: Playing nothing. Octopath Traveler I "finished". I don't believe I have interest in getting to the "true" ending, or the other special jobs. Why? The game has been kinda generic. Only a few of the side quests are actually interesting. I do have the final dungeon left, but I think I'm just gonna call it a day with that game. I have Octopath 2, but I don't even think I'm gonna mess with it to be honest with you. I think I'll move on to finishing Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.

PS5: Final Fantasy 7 Remake. I had picked this game back up, basically having to start over. Some reason my save didn't transfer from PS4. I also have Crisis Core but I am not starting it. I did finish Lost Judgement and I do believe the story was not as good as the first game. I still liked it, but I wasn't hooked.

PC: Baldur's Gate 3. I played this in early access and of course liked it, I'm taking my time with it though. I am also playing WWE2k23 still and doing the MyRise (story).

3DS: Project X Zone. Not really focused on the game, it gets played from time to time.

XBOX/Gamepass: Nothing.

Side Note: I had been playing Miles Edgeworth Investigations via emulation. I was playing Miles Edgeworth Investigations 2 but a save did not cooperate and set me back a whole case so I'm taking a break.

Completed: Miles Edgeworth Investigations, Lost Judgement, Octopath Traveler*

 

[Ansered]

The Witcher 3
Red Dead Redemption 2
Horizon Zero Dawn

 

[LegionX]

I've debated just letting this thread stay dead.. but.. screw it.. the year isn't over so I may as well still type away in to the ether even if nobody ever notices!

18. Mass Effect 2 Definitive Edition (PS4 played on PS5)

Now that's an upgrade, after having played and enjoyed the first game at the start of ther year but finding it a lot less involved than expected, this really was the step up in quality I'd heard about, seems like a lot more production was put in to the missions and just the presentation in general. I really enjoyed the story and also enjoyed just spending time going through all the side missions... I'm sure I'll jump on to 3 some time next year and finish off the trilogy!

19. LEGO Batman 2 DC Super Heroes (PC)

I never really have much to say about the LEGO games.. and nothing has changed here... Aside from the fact it's when they swapped over to telling their own story in a game rather than just doing shortened story missions based on existing movie properties... Otherwise though it's more of the same.... if you enjoy the games, you'll enjoy this... If you never have, this isn't going to change your mind

20. Toy Home (PS3)

Back to going through the old backlog of PS3 games I bought years ago, installed, and then never played.... And this one.... while not completely terrible..... is ruined by one MAJOR flaw... they made it sixaxis control only.... it's kind of a micro machines type racer except you are alone and have a time limit to collect coins on the map, driving on tables full of crap etc... It would actually be a fun little challenge if not for the fact you are forced to use the sixaxis to tilt steer etc rather than buttons and analog sticks.. and it's just too damn innacurate for it! Not recommended

I've completed others since these, but it's a start

 

[marcincz]

Old, good thread. Years ago one of my fav., but in little different shape (we wrote all beat titles + purchased).
However I copied from 52 games in 52 weeks and chose only older games or remastered:

Game 1 - Moon Patrol (EC) - 02h 05m
Beat 08/01/2023 - my score: 7/10
Game 2 - R-Type (EC) - 01h 40m
Beat 12/01/2023 - my score: 8/10
Game 3 - Lightning Swords (EC) - 01h 05m
Beat 14/01/2023 - my score: 6/10
Game 4 - Battle Chopper (EC) - 04h 51m
Beat 09/02/2023 - my score: 4/10
Game 5 - In the Hunt (EC) - 01h 09m
Beat 11/02/2023 - my score: 8/10
Game 6 - inFamous: Festival of Blood (PS3) - 03h 52m
Beat 19/03/2023 - my score: 5/10
Game 7 - Metroid Prime Remastered (NS) - 29h 25m
Beat 23/04/2023 - my score: 7/10
Game 8 - Toki (NS) - 03h 15m
Beat 16/07/2023 - my score: 6/10
Game 9 - Dragon's Lair (PS4) - 01h 02m
Beat 23/07/2023 - my score: 7/10
Game 10 - Space Ace (PS4) - 00h 49m
Beat 23/07/2023 - my score: 7/10
Game 11 - Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp (PS4) - 00h 45m
Beat 25/07/2023 - my score: 6/10
Game 12 - Resistance 3 (PS3) - 09h 34m
Beat 30/07/2023 - my score: 8/10
Game 13 - ClayFighter (EC) - 00h 56m
Beat 15/08/2023 - my score: 6/10
Game 14 - Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure (EC) - 02h 57m
Beat 25/08/2023 - my score: 5/10
Game 15 - Incantation (EC) - 01h 53m
Beat 27/08/2023 - my score: 6/10
Game 16 - Battle Chess (EC) - 02h 25m
Beat 28/08/2023 - my score: 5/10
Game 17 - ClayFighter 2: Judgment Clay (EC) - 00h 46m
Beat 29/08/2023 - my score: 5/10
Game 18 - Prehistorik Man (EC) - 05h 03m
Beat 08/09/2023 - my score: 6/10
Game 19 - Earthworm Jim (EC) - 04h 33m
Beat 24/09/2023 - my score: 6/10
Game 20 - Earthworm Jim 2 (EC) - 03h 10m
Beat 03/10/2023 - my score: 8/10
Game 21 - Fear Effect (PS1) - 16h 36m
Beat 06/10/2023 - my score: 8/10
Game 22 - Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (PS3) - 14h 59m
Beat 14/10/2023 - my score: 8/10
Game 23 - GoldenEye 007 (XGP) - 08h 09m
Beat 15/11/2023 - my score: 9/10

Currently playing Splinter Cell Chaos Theory on PS3.

 

[LegionX]

21. Halo 3 (PC)

I've said previously that while I played the first 2 Halo games (and found the second one a lot better than the first), they still didn't really grab me.. either with story, or the mechanics (Something about the weapons just doesn't feel great to me), and I'd have to say that continued with 3! There seemed a bit more effort in cinematics etc (plus it's a game designed for the next gen of console at the time), but the gameplay was still never more than OK for me... I've got the MCC set so I'll continue with the series.. but I think it's clear I'm never going to be big on the series... perhaps it's something I needed to play back in the day when they first came out... (never did cause I've never owned an Xbox though)

 

[RavageX]

Switch: Luigi's Mansion, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Mario/Rabbids(the first one).
I don't know what happened to finishing Xenoblade Chronicles.

Was strongly focused on Fire Emblem, but needed a break. I like it, but its your typical anime story and I am really, really tired of that. Luigi's Mansion isn't my typical type of game, but enjoying the change. Don't mind a puzzle or two.

PC: Baldur's Gate 3. Currently in act 3. Starting to run into weird bugs? I also think I broke part of the story in a few spots. Robocop: Rogue City: Enjoying but taking a break. The game what you would expect from Robocop, it is excellent and you can tell it was done by people that respect the source material.

PS5: Nothing.
Xbox S: Nothing.

Gamepass: Like A Dragon Gaiden. I normally buy the series but since they haven't done a physical release yet I had to pass. The game is ok so far, but I am being cautious despite the good reviews.

3DS/Vita: Nothing.

Finished games: FF7 Remake (PS5), Starfield (PC) Miles Edgeworth Investigations 2 (emulation)

 

[LegionX]

I tend to go on tanjents... and the (at the time) upcoming release of Spider-Man 2 on PS5 got me wondering what the early Marvel licensed games were like in the 3D era... thusly!

22. Iron Man & X-0 Manowar in Heavy Metal (PS1)

That's quite a title... and.... quite a rubbish game! It's a side scrolling platform/combat game where you can choose to play either Iron Man or Manowar, who I believe was actually a cross over character from a different publisher. I hadn't even realised early Playstation games could be this basic... It doesn't use the PS1 memorycard... it uses the old style of showing up a code on each level completion that you had to write down (or in my case, take a photo of) to come back to.... The graphics are poor... the combat simplistic, the boss battles uninspired.... it's just a poor, low budget, lets knock something out as fast as possible type of release... Very much not recommended

23. The Incredible Hulk : The Pantheon Saga (PS1)

OK.. after my last review... believe it or not.... this one is significantly worse! This time the game IS in 3D... but it's super ugly, the animation is massively crude... the combat is terrible... and The Hulk is.... very easily beaten by just standard low grade opponents..... Also... the final boss battle makes use of a system that is never used or introduced in the entire game, and even after going to YouTube for help, took me a while to work out what button presses made it work.... The game is really short, and thank god for that... For now I think it's the worst PS1 game I've ever played.. I hope nothing I play in future changes my mind! (Oh, and even though it's a different developer.. it also has no save system, just codes to input...)

 

[jufonuk]

Been going through gaucamelee. Really enjoying it. I think I’m near the end of the game.

After that some quake or Doom 2016 yeah.

 

[RavageX]

I tend to go on tanjents... and the (at the time) upcoming release of Spider-Man 2 on PS5 got me wondering what the early Marvel licensed games were like in the 3D era... thusly!

22. Iron Man & X-0 Manowar in Heavy Metal (PS1)

I only recall the name, I thought it was too long back then but had zero interest in it.

23. The Incredible Hulk : The Pantheon Saga (PS1)

I remember this game sadly. If I recall right didnt they have Hulk running around flipping switches or something? Terrible, but a lot of superhero games were then.

 

[LegionX]

Yup.... part of the game indeed was hitting switches.... I have to assume back in these times licensed properties were 95% a cheap cash grab in that a game would already be half developed as something else... get the license... throw in the licensed character model and just make a loose attempt to make it all fit.. I'm curious to try the original PS1 Spider-Man game cause I think that was considered a solid game back in the day.. maybe the first good one

 

[RavageX]

Yup.... part of the game indeed was hitting switches.... I have to assume back in these times licensed properties were 95% a cheap cash grab in that a game would already be half developed as something else... get the license... throw in the licensed character model and just make a loose attempt to make it all fit.. I'm curious to try the original PS1 Spider-Man game cause I think that was considered a solid game back in the day.. maybe the first good one

Now the Spiderman PS1 game I enjoyed and was pretty alright.(Though I played it on dreamcast I think) Webswinging was very basic but thats kinda expected for that time period.

 

[marcincz]

Finished Splinter Cell Chaos Theory and that was probably my last "older" title from backlog in 2023
SC CT is incredible, even now. It was my first time. The best SC in series.

Summarize, I've beaten 24 older games this year. I must admit it's quite good result for me.

 

[LegionX]

24. Dragon Quest (iOS)

Normally I'm not a fan of mobile gaming as I don't like the touch controls.. but for an old turn based jrpg it's totally fine. I've been meaning to try out this series for literally years... finally got there... Turns out the first game is very simplistic! I guess being one of the first of its kind that makes sense... but to give a bit of an idea... there is no party... you play as just the one character, you only fight singular enemies at a time, there's very little story, and it's mostly get to area and get task, grind until you are strong enough to get the item, move to next town and repeat... but being on my phone I was literally playing it in short bursts while for example.. waiting for a meal to be prepared, or if I arrived early to the cinema etc.. and it works really well in that situation as there isn't much you need to remember... The only negative (which they no doubt fixed in latter releases) is that 90% of the time... a melee attack does as much damage as a magic one.... so I almost exclusively used my magic for healing only and used my sword for attacks (Because there's only one enemy there's never a situation like in newer games where your melee attack can't reach an enemy). All up, very simplistic and basic, but I enjoyed my time with it

 

[LegionX]

25. Escape From Monkey Island (PC)

This is the 4th game in the Monkey Island series... and the first one that I really struggled to play.... The first 2 were classic pixel style point and click games, the third went for a hand painted kind of look while keeping the control system the same... This one they went 3D for the first time... but this is early 3D.. when they hadn't really perfected things.... so it looks graphically more dated than the old games, it was designed for console so it involves direct control of guybrush, and the whole control system is just..... awkward as hell... it's hard to explain other thanm to say it's just.... all wrong! The game is begging for a remaster to fix it up. All up, the story is passable, not as good as the earlier games, but not bad... But the controls ruined it for me and I was actually kind of glad to be done with it once I rolled credits.....

 

[LegionX]

Three posts in a row from me.. oh dear! Hopefully somebody else out there contributes before the year ends... perhaps then we can even make.... shock horror... page 2!

26. Ryse : Son of Rome (PC)

This was a game I remember seeing back when the Xbox One released and having a small amount of curiosity over, as I've generally enjoyed cinematic style games... well... finally I've actually played it after getting it in a Humble Monthly Bundle a bunch of years back, and, it's..... fine..... It still is pretty decent graphically (Helps playing on my PC cause from memory it ran at 900p or something on the Xbox but I played it in 2K. It's biggest flaw is repetition... the combat system doesn't tend to change or progress much during the game so every encounter just becomes more of the same, and while there's been plenty of other games where this is the same... it seemed more noticeable in this game. All up, was a decent game, not overly long, bit repetitive... but not bad! I would have had a lot more to complain about if I'd paid full price on release for the game though!

 

[LegionX]

Four posts in a row it is then... regardless if anybody else is paying any attention, I'm at least going to finish the year out!

27. Spider-Man 2 (PS5)

It had to eventually happen... my first 2023 game of the year and thus first "cheat" game.. but the PS5 was getting lonely... I just wanted something shiny and new for a change... And it's certainly a technically impressive game, great combat,traversal,set pieces etc. Maybe the story wasn't completely amazing, and the Mary Jane missions again were a bit of a miss (went from pure stealth last game to her pretty much being able to one shot every enemy). All up a great game, something I can confirm as it's one of the few games I've ever bothered to platinum.

28. Serious Sam 2 (PC)

Hadn't played anything from this series in a while so jumped in to 2 (even though it's the 3rd game in the series). I was a bit surprised when booting it up to find it all super colourful and cartoony though! It seems this is the odd one out as all the other games have a similar art style but this one went a different direction.. And the story/cutscenes... just bonkers and nuts in this one..... Other than that the actual combat is still very similar, mostly big open areas and tonnes of enemies coming at you from multiple directions.... I enjoyed it but am glad the future games went back to the old style!

29. husk (PC)

Yawn.... oops... I fell asleep..... This game is advertised as a horror game.... but it's mostly a walking simulator with a few enemies every now and then... but it's all soooo drawn... out..... it's not an overly long game but for the story/content created... it should have been a few hours shorter... There's far too much walking along paths for minutes with nothing happening etc... I know this was only made by a small team, and their first game at that.... but surely it would have been pointed out if they had any other people try to play through it... Not recommended i'm afraid!

 

[LegionX]

OK.. lets finish the year off with the last 2 games I managed to complete...

30. From Dust (PC)

This is an older (PS3 era) Ubisoft game, a god game-lite I guess you could say? you are a god and you mostly use powers of earth/water/lava manipulation and the ability to tell your people where to head, to try to build enough camps (up to 4 per level) to then open up an exit to the next area. The physicsa of it all is quite cool as to begin with you are lifting up sand to build up other areas to allow your people to get where they need to go, but it then as time goes on you get the power to manipulate water, and then lava as well, and as you get each camp up, you will get to use a certain power (like a power than absorbs all the water for x time, or allows you to grab more earth/water/lava per go.. I'm not explaining it that well but it's an interesting concept and one I enjoyed. The game is only 5-6hrs long so it also doesn't outstay its welcome

31. SteamWorld Dig (PC)

This is a 2D mining game where you go down a mine and have to dig up resources to then level up and unlock higher abilities etc, as you go down further you start coming across creatures and mechanical things that can hurt you. If you die you lose half your gear and have to get back to that point to collect back the other half. Again it's not a long game (About 7h for me but speedrunners have got it down to about 30mins apparently) but for a smaller indie title it just feels very polished and the controls are tight. I thought this was really quite solid and I plan now to try some of the other Steamworld games they've made since

And with that... I'm done for the year!