2017 - 12 Month Pile Program

kergguz wrote:

Strict one in, one out policy here folks.

Trying to stick to that too but I'd like to achieve something closer to 2 out, 1 in so I can make a decent dent in the pile.

The Steam Summer Sale did nothing for me. The discounts weren't enough to tempt me over what I'm already playing. My biggest weakness at the moment is Humble Monthly.

Beat

  • Wolfenstein: The New Order
  • INSIDE
  • SUPERHOT (is the most innovative shooter I've played in years!)

If I'd played SUPERHOT last year it would've been a very close race between that and DOOM for my GOTY.

Added

  • Pillars of Eternity
  • SUPERHOT VR
  • Pyre

PoE was part of Humble Monthly and I've been itching to pick it up for a while now. I played a couple hours and will go back to it when I've knocked off Fallout 4 or FF XV. I couldn't not grab SUPERHOT VR as soon as I found out it was out for PSVR. And I almost steered clear of Pyre but I just had to see for myself what everyone is raving about.

Dropped

  • Pokemon Sun

One day I'll learn that the Pokemon games just don't do it for me.

Playing

  • SUPERHOT VR
  • Final Fantasy XV
  • Fallout 4
  • Pyre

I've been tinkering with a few others but these are my mainstays at the moment. Really looking forward to Tacoma hitting tomorrow too.

July Update

Beaten

  • Crash Bandicoot (from the N. Sane Trilogy)
  • Final Fantasy VII
  • What Remains of Edith Finch

Started

  • Crash Bandicoot 2 - Cortex Strikes Back (from the N. Sane Trilogy)

Played

  • Persona 3 Portable

This month was fairly productive, marked primarily by the fact that I finally finished Final Fantasy VII. I also picked up the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and played through roughly half of it, and ended the month by buying and completing What Remains of Edith Finch. A good month of gaming!

Alright, July report coming through.

GAMES COMPLETED:
- Tales From the Borderlands
- The Order: 1886
- Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
- Splatoon 2 (single-player)

GAMES ON HOLD:
- Gravity Rush 2
- World of Final Fantasy
- Xenoblade Chronicles 3D
- Hollow Knight
- Darksiders: Warmastered Edition

GAMES IN PROGRESS:
- Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age
- Splatoon 2 (multiplayer fun times)

Good progress this month. I had some time before FFXII's big release, which I knew would be time consuming. As such, I decided to devote the week before its release to completing two pile games that I knew would be short. Right now I'm finishing up a reread of Stone of Farewell since I don't have a 3DS game, which I'm thinking should become Xenoblade Chronicles 3D again. Get time into that before Metroid: Samus Returns in September.

Darksiders I don't know if I should even bother listing. It was a nice palette cleanser but I don't need to finish a game I've already beaten. Hollow Knight is the tough one. I gave it a spin on my laptop and am at an awkward point where I'm so deep in but don't completely remember what I was doing, but I don't know if I want to start again fresh. I really wish they just had a date for it set on Switch.

Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is my only for sure purchase this month. I anticipate it being short, so it'll provide a break in FFXII's progress (which has been slow for a number of reasons, one of which being the sudden "click" of Fire Emblem Echoes). I'm tempted by Yakuza Kiwami, but at the same time I also have a lot of multiplayer upcoming. I want to complete FFXV's Episode Gladiolus and Prompto DLC while giving the multiplayer beta a test-run. Titanfall 2 finally has PvE I want to try out. Splatoon 2 is constantly happening. I'm thinking I'll need to schedule specific nights to specific games to make it a bit easier to deal with, especially in the lead-up to Destiny 2.

Crossing my fingers November and December remain empty, as I'm also over halfway done editing my next video. Hopefully I can start recording for the next before September, which would mean even more time taken away from pile progress.

Right now, I'm thinking it's better to carefully decide what I really want to play. I still have these creeping thoughts of "I should play as much as I can and prepare for the end-of-year GotY discussions", but then I see unopened copies of Batman: Arkham Collection, Mafia III, Bioshock Collection and Valkyria Chronicles and think "Maybe I should find a better balance". I guess that old habit of wanting to chase the mainstream/standard Games Critic "always playing the latest" is tough to break.

P.S. Eleima, sorry to hear Toren didn't click. I didn't experience bugs on the PS4, though it is certainly lacking in polish. If I recall, I gifted that one your way? I was afraid it wouldn't be quite your style, but given the subject matter I think it was worth a try. A shame, but that's the risk of games. Even if, narratively, it may appeal, the mechanics may not.

July update

Annual game budget remaining at start of July - £140

Incoming
Hatsune Mika: Project DIVA Future Tone. (Both Future Sound AND Colorful Tone) - £25
Cosmic Star Heroine - £6
Pyre - £14
Ocarina of Time - £9

Outgoing
Dropped a fair few but zero completed and sold none.

Annual game budget remaining at end of July - £86

Did buy a few games for the boy this month - Pokemon, Wonderboy, Parappa the Rappa HD (error) - but I'm not inluding these in my annual spend.

Plan for August

Play a bunch of Pyre and Yo-kai Watch.
Still... Finish off the tiniest lil piece of Life is Strange on PS4!

Time to have a rummage through the pile, make some kind of list containing those games I should get back to and those games would really like to try but as yet are still sitting untouched. Should hopefully curtail the spending for a while.

Biggest temptations this month...

Nier Automata. Ever Oasis. Fantasy Life. For some reason am considering buying Fallout 4 to give it another shot even though have already purchased, been disappointed and sold earlier this year... weird!

July update

Added:
Nothing

Beaten:

  • Final Fantasy XV
  • DuckTales Remastered

In progress, to be beaten in August:

  • The Last Guardian (PS4) (~50% complete)
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter (~50% complete)

July Update

Added

I stopped counting. Went a little game buying wild this month.

Made progress

  • Knack (PS4)
  • GTAV (PS4)
  • LEGO The Hobbit (PS4)
  • Dishonored 2 (PS4)
  • Mass Effect: Andromeda (PS4)
  • The Surge (PS4)

Finished

  • Turing Test (PS4)
  • Titanfall 2
  • Legend of Korra
  • LEGO The Hobbit
ccesarano wrote:

P.S. Eleima, sorry to hear Toren didn't click. I didn't experience bugs on the PS4, though it is certainly lacking in polish. If I recall, I gifted that one your way? I was afraid it wouldn't be quite your style, but given the subject matter I think it was worth a try. A shame, but that's the risk of games. Even if, narratively, it may appeal, the mechanics may not.

Indeed you were the one. I'm not crossing it off completely, because I do wonder that my laptop wasn't beefy enough to handle it (even though I just got it, but it isn't gaming oriented). That would probably explain the graphical bugs I got.
I'm also convinced that it would do better with a controller, but I unfortunately didn't have mine on hand. We'll see once I get my rig back, because I do like the aesthetic of it, even though I didn't care much for how vague and opaque it was.

Eleima wrote:

We'll see once I get my rig back, because I do like the aesthetic of it, even though I didn't care much for how vague and opaque it was.

Yeah it's all basically metaphors, though that's partially why I love it so much.

And yes, I do feel the game was designed with a controller in mind. Zelda and Shadow of the Colossus were two big influences, and they're both console games.

I've been pretty bummed out about my inability to finish games this year, I only managed to click off 9 games despite starting WAAAY more then that. I'm having alot of trouble keeping focused on just one or two things and that has been resulting me putting alot of games that I was having fun with on back burner.

So far I finished:

Spoiler:

Atelier Rorona Plus
Forza 6 Apex
Fire Emblem Birthright
Persona 5
Rime
Tales of Berseria
Atelier Totori Plus
Four Sided Fantasy
Trials of the Blood Dragon

These games I have made good progress in but never got around to finishing them.

Spoiler:

Doom 2016
Valkyria Revolution
God Wars Future Past
Horizon Zero Dawn
God Eater Resurection
Dragon Quest Builders
Tokyo Xanadu
Pillars of Eternity
Mad Max
Jeane D'arc

As you can see there are alot of Really long games there, and to add to that list is the few games that I'm planning to pick up day one later this year.

Spoiler:

Ys VIII, Everybody's Golf, Gran Turismo Sport, Yakuza Kiwami.

Which are also not exactly short on time. Not to mention the massive backlog of things I want to start playing too...

I can see myself finishing up Tokyo Xanadu on the Vita without any issues, but its the stuff on PS4 and PC that I really need some help focusing on. I tried hiding Rocket League in a random folder so its not starring at me when I turn on the ps4, I also canceled any preorders on games that I wouldn't play right away, that reduced the incoming games. Any other tips?

Wow Fastmav, you're honestly making a lot of progress considering the size of some of those.

Beyond my usual "be realistic about how long games are going to take" and "consider making yourself throw away a game (even if only symbolically for digital games) for every one you add to the pile" I don't have a lot of tips, but, best wishes.

Me, I've been working some 60 hour weeks, and I've been playing Final Fantasy games, so... my progress is pretty much stalled out this year.

When putting a hour count at the end of those games mades it even more grim

Spoiler:

Doom 2016 ---13 hours, 2 hours in
Valkyria Revolution --- 35 hours, 5 hours in
God Wars Future Past --- ? 40-50 hours maybe? 15 hours in
Horizon Zero Dawn --- 35-40 hours, 25 hours in
God Eater Resurection --- 45 hours, 13 hours in
Dragon Quest Builders --- 45 hours, 15 hours in
Tokyo Xanadu --- 55 hours, 21 hours in
Pillars of Eternity --- 50 hours, 11 hours in
Mad Max --- 30 hours, 15 hours in
Jeane D'arc --- 40 hours, 18 hours in
403 hours roughly to finish all from the start and I'm 140 hours deep into them
I would have to average to about 13 hours a week in order to finish them by end of the year, and thats not including my planned purchases.

I've been in a funk lately and have only gone for the most frictionless play options, but it's maybe telling that since I started my play alphabetically thing a month ago, I haven't even turned on the Wii U and don't know where my Vita even is.

I'm not sure I follow. Are you implying that the funk is caused by a lack of Wii U/Vita, forcing yourself to play games in alphabetical order is no longer jiving for you, or that Wii U and Vita games are not "frictionless"?

shoptroll wrote:

I'm not sure I follow. Are you implying that the funk is caused by a lack of Wii U/Vita, forcing yourself to play games in alphabetical order is no longer jiving for you, or that Wii U and Vita games are not "frictionless"?

Lack of enthusiasm has made them not frictionless. The Vita needs finding; and the Wii U pad needs charging; and the Wii U is slow to load; and the Vita isn't, like, perfectly comfortable all the time; and so on. They're very minor speed bumps, but they're enough to stop me and make me end up playing on something else. I may need to skip both A and B to get to a Wii U game I'm motivated to play, and I should probably just write off the Vita entirely and give it to someone who cares.

For a long moment my assumption was that alphabetic order required playing Amiga or Atari games long before getting to Vita and Wii U.
That would be dedication. Probably not very frictionless.

My Xbox would be the big loser there.

Oh but what was really meant was *reverse* alphabetical order Yes, of course, that was it. *nods*

I'm still in a big funk myself, this weekend I ended up playing almost next to nothing of my pile games. Ended up getting stuck on a boss in God Eater Resurection and stalling out because of that, which is frustrating. I did end up playing a bit of Dragon Quest Heroes, but not really enough to make any meaningful progress. On the positive I did spent a bunch of time with Guilty Gear Revolator, finishing story mode and beating a bunch of arcade chapters. Plus I fired up Fate/Extella from over a year ago and finally got the true ending and all the characters unlocked so thats something I guess? Tokyo Xanadu is still going ok, not playing on the Vita as much as I normally do, but that should change in couple weeks when my kids school starts.

August report on the same page as July. Either we've all given up over-thinking the pile, have stopped caring about the pile, or are too damn busy to converse about the pile.

Or maybe world events just have us all pre-occupied with things more important than the pile.

But not me! I've beaten all I can this month so report time it is.

GAMES COMPLETED:
- Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice

GAMES ON HOLD:
- Gravity Rush 2
- World of Final Fantasy
- Xenoblade Chronicles 3D
- Hollow Knight
- Darksiders: Warmastered Edition

GAMES IN ROTATION:
- Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age
- Splatoon 2 (multiplayer fun times)
- Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed
- Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

Decided to swap "Games in Progress" with "Games in Rotation", though clearly I'm getting a bit out of hand. This is partially because my mood has shifted to anime to the extreme, and thus it was a trial to even complete Hellblade (despite the fact that it was a certainly enjoyable game). I had a similar thing last year and ended up playing Fire Emblem and Tokyo Mirage Sessions during that phase. So this year I decided to start up Akiba's Trip, a game that a friend of mine recommended I try and another requested I write about some time ago when my Extra Life page had stretch goals that I've failed to meet. I bought it for cheap in the last sale and decided to give it a spin.

I wrote an awful lot about this game so gonna shove it behind a spoiler tag for now.

Spoiler:

It has given me an idea for a front-page article but I want to wait a bit before putting a draft together. Something more personal and less critical of narrative themes or mechanics. The truth is the game's not very good on an objective level. Simple graphics, control scheme that's clearly designed for the Vita, pretty "eh" characters and a combat system that finally stopped being a pain in the ass last night with the introduction of a mechanic that should have been revealed way, way earlier.

But it's basically just what the doctor ordered. I know in reality Akihabara is some small and underwhelming district in Tokyo that's only a few blocks in size. But it carries with it a mystique, this idea of a geek convention that's 24/7, and while Akiba's Trip doesn't convey it in a believable escapist manner, it has enough little touches that just take me into that same happy space as a convention like MAGFest or PAX. A "Pitter" feed that fuses Reddit/2chan with Twitter contains conversations with Akihabara locals that each have a distinct personality and offer a sort of peanut gallery commentary to the events of the game (last night's unlock of an "Old Akiba vs. New Akiba" being my favorite, as it was somewhat insightful).

The game isn't as fan-servicey as it seems when advertised. Yes, the idea is you fight "vampires" and strip them of their clothes so they burn up in sunlight. It's one of those ideas that makes you just drop your face into your hands like "This is why we can't have nice things". But in the heat of combat, that sh*t really goes by way too fast, especially since you're waiting for button prompts to chain clothing removals together. The game is also front-loaded with guys you'll be stripping down as well, and overall it seems an even distribution of men and women you'll be tackling. If anything, the main conceit is one that you're supposed to laugh at while giving a new, amusing context to the notion of fatalities or finishing moves.

It also makes you very, very concerned about your own wardrobe.

But that's not to say the game isn't without its Pandering Otaku Bullsh*t™. If you're in a certain camera mode then pressing the R1 button and rubbing the touch pad massages your AI partner's (and your partner is always a female (so far (there is an option to play a female character, just not sure if that's on subsequent playthroughs or only "toy box" mode))) boobs. It's a dumb little "tee-hee I'm thirteen years old and find this funny" thing, but then evidently during a training montage you can get an image of whichever female character you trained opposite of having their clothes torn away. And then you can set the image as your phone's (menu's) wallpaper. But! The mission after that I was fighting the male villain and a similar screen popped up revealing his tightly clinging red undies. So...

I dunno. It is what it is, and you're either repulsed by it, roll your eyes at it, shrug at it, or are excited by it. It is what it is.

Either way, I find it to be an enjoyable enough distraction that I keep going back each night, and the nature of the missions gives it a "just one more" addictive quality.

Unfortunately, while I'm enjoying a lot about FFXII the combat is not one of the things I'm feeling ambivalent on. It's not bad, but it makes me miss the Xenoblade combat. If the "trick" to FFXII is in the gambits then I'm feeling like I'm in for a very unexciting game. I want a combat system where I'm actively making decisions, and in fact a lot of my time is spent over-riding gambits so I can issue commands myself. It makes combat longer, but it at least makes it more interesting. In the end, though, made it easy to say "No, lemme switch to this Anime-As-f*ck™ game for a while".

With that said, you'd think I'd jump into Xenoblade on my 3DS without hesitation now that I've finished reading book two of Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. Nope! Started up Shantae and the Pirate's Curse on a whim because I just want something less committal at the moment.

So my pile's in shambles. I have games half-completed and partway started. September is gonna be a monster, with Destiny 2 next Wednesday and Metroid: Samus Returns the Friday after I bellieve. Then there's SteamWorld Dig 2 on the 21st. October, November and December are still looking mercifully light, at least.

August was also taken up with time spent finalizing my Transformers: Fall of Cybertron video essay. I've now got myself set up to maybe be able to work on my next video. I gotta do tests tonight, and was originally planning on doing Halo: Combat Evolved, but with Destiny 2 next Wednesday... well, I should probably swap to something else. So... we'll see! We'll see.

Maybe I'll have a productive end-of-year.

August Report =/

Doom 2016 - Havent even touched it....
Valkyria Revolution - Played an hour since last time I talked about it =/
God Wars Future Past - Haven't gone back yet
Horizon Zero Dawn - Haven't gone back yet
God Eater Resurection - Stuck on a story mission and then stopped playing it....
Dragon Quest Builders - Played couple hours haven't gone back since.
Tokyo Xanadu - I actually played this a bit last weekend!
Pillars of Eternity - Havent even touched it since...
Mad Max - same
Jeane D'arc - same, but Tokyo Xanadu is my primary concern on the Vita...

What I actually played is .... Witcher 3, yes another 150 hour game is just what I need, but hey I jumped in it last weekend and effectively burned 8 hours or so, but I had fun. Everybody's Golf not exactly a pile game since its brand new but I been playing it obsessively since it came out and having a blast.

Thinking about it some more, it seems I should stop fussing over those games and just play what the mood strikes, otherwise I feel like I'm getting stressed over nothing .

August was a reverse of July for me. Didn't complete a whole lot of games.

Hollow Knight - Completed. Or rather, first ending completed, but don't think I'll go back to it.
Age of Decadence - Completed.
Path of Exile - got further than I've managed before, but guess it is technically not completable.

None of which where on my original list of pile games. All according to plan.
In september a decent amount of new games I'm interested in is releasing, in particular Divinity Original Sin 2, so I guess it will stay that way for now.

Fastmav347 wrote:

Thinking about it some more, it seems I should stop fussing over those games and just play what the mood strikes, otherwise I feel like I'm getting stressed over nothing .

Actually, you should fuss about not playing HZD and Pillars of Eternity!
I kid. A little.

I've been bad and I should be ashamed...

New purchases:

New: Undertale (PS4)
New: Stories: The Path of Destinies (PS4)
New: Zombie Vikings (PS4)
New: Oceanborn (PS4)
New: Double Dragon IV (PS4)
New: Armikrog (PS4)

Games beaten or removed from the pile:

Nada, none, zilch.

Where did August go...?

Added:
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (3DS)
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (Steam)
Layers of Fear (Steam)
Conker's Bad Fur Day (N64)
Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy (PS4)
Uncharted: The Last Legacy (PS4)

Beat:
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (Steam)
Assassin's Creed Rogue (Steam)
Day of the Tentacle Remastered (PS4)

Made Progress In:
Final Fantasy X HD (PS4)
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX (3DS)
Uncharted: The Last Legacy (PS4)

August report! This month was pretty solid. A lot of that was thanks to my new laptop, on which I gamed for the better half of August. I've been falling behind for the past ten days, barely touched a game, but that's mostly because I was too busy buying appliances and assembling IKEA furniture. Better days to come, I'm sure.
I did change my tracking method for the Sam & Max games, though. I'd added them as individual seasons, but they're listed as episodes in Steam, as well as in my spreadsheet and in Backloggery, so I made changes accordingly.

I suddenly hits me that I've been doing this for a while now (like a lot of you, but still). 2013? Wow.

Added:

  • Tacoma (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unplayed.gif) - A gift from a wonderful, beautiful goodjer.

Finished:

  • The Walking Dead: A New Frontier (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif) - which is weird, because I'd marked it in my previous report, but it's marked as finished on August 1st.
  • Sam & Max: Season 1 - Episode 1: Culture Shock (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif)
  • Sam & Max: Season 1 - Episode 2: Situation: Comedy (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif)
  • Sam & Max: Season 1 - Episode 3: The Mole, the Mob, and the Meatball (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif)
  • Sam & Max: Season 1 - Episode 4: Abe Lincoln Must Die! (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif)
  • Sam & Max: Season 1 - Episode 5: Reality 2.0 (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif)
  • Sam & Max: Season 1 - Episode 6: Bright Side of the Moon (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif)
  • Hexcells Infinite (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif)
  • The Journey Down - Chapter One (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif)
  • Age of Mythology: Extended Edition (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif) - This one has an interesting story, because I'd played the original way back when, and I needed to play something which I could play on autopilot while I watched some Star Trek movies. Sure did the trick, although I started to get frustrated when the difficulty ramped up with the Norse missions.
  • Caesar 3 (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif) - Again, needed some mindless gaming as I watched Star Trek movies, and this is an oldie but goldie, a favorite from my youth. Made me add Pharaoh to my wishlist.

Dropped:
None!

Played:

  • The Elder Scrolls 5 : Skyrim - Special Edition (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif) - About an hour or so two nights ago, first time I was back on my rig. Looking forward to getting back to Skyrim. And to streaming some games!
  • The Journey Down - Chapter Two (Steam) IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif)IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif) - I'd say I'm about halfway through. Solid game, definitely recommend these to adventure gamers.

Remaining games: 65 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif) (61 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unplayed.gif))
Progress (Games): 41 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif) + 7 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/null.gif) - 51 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif) = -3
Est. remaining hours: 627 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif) (623 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unplayed.gif))
Progress (Est. total hours): 215 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/beaten.gif) + 98 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/null.gif) + 135 played IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/unfinished.gif) - 391 IMAGE(http://backloggery.com/images/new.gif) = 57

Backloggery's Memory Card is at 24, a loooooot better than previous month's 7. Sure does wonders for my morale! Definitely looking forward to more time off in the evenings, and even a weekend here and there to myself. Wow. Haven't had that in forever. That's gonna be... **mind blown**

August Update

Started: Pyre, Slime Rancher, Sonic Mania, Thimbleweed Park
Finished: Pyre, Sonic Mania

Finishing two of the four games I started isn't bad, I think.

The only game I have marked in Backloggery for August is Bloodborne: The Old Hunters, which actually requires replaying the whole game. That gives "The Old Hunters" the distinction of being one of the very few DLC add-ons that I've both purchased and played. It's exceedingly rare for me to revisit a game with the kind of time and interest that a story DLC requires.

That wasn't the only game I finished, but it's the only one I marked. I also played through a fair number of mobile puzzle games:

  • klocki
  • Hook
  • A Good Snowman Is Hard to Build
  • Zenge
  • Human Resource Machine
  • Slayaway Camp
  • Mini Metro
  • Transmission
  • Kami

I don't put those into Backloggery because my past experience with smart phone gaming has been largely negative. Even here, I tried playing a few other games and found them to be exploitative and contemptuous of their players.

Transmission is a real feather in my cap. It is quite difficult, and I finished it including all the bonus challenges. But the real revelation here was Human Resource Machine, an inviting and well-crafted game about the fundamentals of computer programming. I fell in love with it and have already sought out some other programming puzzlers on my PC.

I had to drop Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. It's a really good game, but there was a casual reveal in the middle of the game that was so personally upsetting for me that I couldn't keep going.

Still haven't touched my Vita or Wii U. Wonder how long I'll keep that up.

August update:

Purchased:

  • 20XX (PC/Steam)

Beaten:

  • The Last Guardian (PS4)

Made significant progress in:

  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC (PC/Steam)
  • 20XX (PC/Steam)

I'm pretty sure I dropped at least one game from the backlog, but I can't remember what it is.

Oh Clocky, I'm so so sorry. That must've been horribly unpleasant.

Pile In:
Egglia: Legend of the Redcap (iOS)
West of Loathing (PC)
The Blackwell Convergence (PC)
Starcraft: Remastered (PC)
Pyre (PC)

Pile Out:
The Blackwell Convergence (PC)
Paper Mario Sticker Star (3DS)

The Summer of Adventure continues! I picked up a bunch of stuff this month and only managed to beat one of them along with Sticker Star (last night in fact!) which had been kicking around the pile for a few years. Kinda picked that back up on a whim one weekend.

Not much planned for this month. Ideally I'd like to be clear of Splatoon 2 before Metroid: Samus's Return arrives mid-month, but we'll see how things go since I've been kinda stressed lately and I'm finding I'm mentally gravitating towards less action-y titles like RPGs, Adventures, and Simulations right now. I've got a handful of PC games waiting in the wings and I'd still like to really start diving into Persona 5 if I can get a chance before end of October. I don't really think I have much of a plan for this month but it already feels like it's going to hell

ccesarano wrote:

Either we've all given up over-thinking the pile, have stopped caring about the pile, or are too damn busy to converse about the pile.

Yes, and too busy playing games on the pile

Eleima wrote:

Oh Clocky, I'm so so sorry. That must've been horribly unpleasant. :(

Thanks. It managed to hit me where I'm most vulnerable and frightened: the longterm care and treatment of my son with disabilities. It was doubly difficult because I wasn't expecting anything like that from Amnesia at all.


I think I'm going to bounce on my "B" game for the Wii U, as well, which would have me playing Chrono Trigger next.