#gaming backlog

[mintyfreshka]

Gaming Backlog Side Quest: Kingdom Hearts Re:Visited - A Fragmentary Retrospective (Part 1)

So it's only my second blog post in this backlog series, and I'm already veering off-course from what I originally thought it was going to be lol. Basically I want these KH Re:Visited posts to be a way for me to look back on how I got into this series while I share it with a friend of mine: @plzdonthitmewithyourcar. I think both fans of the series and people with <1% knowledge about this funky ass series should be able to enjoy the post though.

(Start of backstory) My introduction to Kingdom Hearts was very unconventional; I essentially stumbled across a volume of the manga while browsing my local library as a kid:

So to my naive self, I assumed that this was the first volume of the whole series, and the "II" of the logo was lost on me (cuz I was a 11 year old lmao). I knew nothing about it, and the cover stood out to me so I decided to take it home and give it a read.

My introduction to the series consisted of what I think is still my favorite false-start to a game I've played. I fully went into this book, and by extension the KH series thinking that it was all about this young teen named Roxas and his friends living in Twilight Town slowly discovering a series of odd events relating to strange creatures called "Nobodies"; Enough to say that by the end of the first volume the rug got pulled out from under me as I was introduced to the true protagonist of the series, Donald, and Goofy: the first truly Disney characters (which also took me aback because I didn't know that the Square Enix x Disney crossover was so literal)

So with that first volume consumed and my pre-teen mind absolutely blown, I voraciously looked for anything else I could consume about the series. (End of backstory)

So now that I'm introducing a dear friend of mine to the series, I've decided to essentially follow the same path that I went on when I was learning the series while introducing them. I've only played the opening of KH2 with them, before we have now switched over to KH1. I'm very pleased that the opening still has the same charm that captured me years ago. The pleasant coziness and simplicity of Twilight Town, contrasted to the feeling of ominous foreshadowing when the supernatural elements begin to become more present and Roxas is forced to confront the answers to the questions he's been asking himself.

Game cinematics are sick AF, gameplay holds up so well (looking at you KH1), and the writing is very recognizably that charming yet unnatural approach to character-driven story.

Some of the things that I hadn't appreciated as much on my first playthrough was the interactions with Seifer, and how Hayner was essentially behind-the-scenes rallying people in the town to help figure out what was going on with Roxas and all the strange events that were beginning to show up around their quiet town. I think noticing interactions like those made me appreciate even more the tragic story of Roxas.

So yeah, this series is really special to me, and I'm really glad to be able to share it with people and blog about it. :)

[chronicallysilly2001]

Backlog Entry #2

I Am Your Beast Completed: 10/27/2024 Playtime: 13 Hours Platform: PC Score: 9/10 Completion: 100%

“Because you’re my friend, babe.”

In their pursuit to create a new classic in the speedrun FPS genre, Strange Scaffold unintentionally wrote one of the greatest yaoi love stories to date.

I Am Your Beast is a high-octane, stylistic shooter reminiscent of Neon White and Hotline Miami. It uses a throw-and-swap gameplay style that keeps the action moving at a breakneck pace from start to finish. After taking out an enemy, you can pick up their weapon and throw it at any point to stun another enemy. This core concept is pushed to its limits near the end, where players may perform a sequence like leaping down from above for a drop takedown, picking up that soldiers knife, throwing it at an explosive barrel to take out a squad, catching one of their guns mid-air, and headshotting the last grunt. It’s moments like these where I Am Your Beast truly shines. Most of the 37 levels are time-attack challenges, with a few miscellaneous levels mixed in. While none of these misc levels felt like a chore, they never quite reached the excitement of chasing those time-attack S-ranks. One of the most underrated aspects of this game, which I haven’t heard enough praise for, is its unique scoring system. In most games, the fastest way to beat a level is to run straight to the end, ignoring all the enemies. But in IAYB, there’s a countdown timer that starts at S rank and decreases to A, B, C, and so on. If you run past all the enemies to reach the end of the level, it’s impossible to meet the time requirement for an S-rank. However, you can subtract time from your score by defeating enemies in specific ways—the more stylish, the greater the time bonus. By requiring players to earn time bonuses through stylish play, the game makes combat feel both rewarding and essential, rather than something to bypass. Achieving S-ranks demands this approach, and you can even gain such a large time bonus that your score turns negative. Grinding for these negative scores is where most of the replay value comes from, especially considering Strange Scaffold made the baffling decision not to include a leaderboard in their time-attack game.

The story follows a standard plot— a retired hitman is called out of retirement for one last job. It’s nothing to write home about, but the charming characters and unique presentation made it enjoyable enough to keep me interested in seeing where the story goes.

The last thing of note is the blood-pumping soundtrack by RJ Lake. The heavy bass of the OST blasting through my ears kept me going as I flew through levels, resetting over and over to shave seconds off my time. The soundtrack washes over you until you’re no longer conscious of your actions, moving purely on instinct.

[thejazzywaffles]

Just finished Chants of Sennaar, my first game of 2024

If you wanna recommend a game, I tend to like games with critters, puzzles, and narratives.

[gaming-videos-72]

Grand Theft Auto VI - GTA 6 Original Trailer 4K

[leonardel611]

Hey gamers! How many games have you played in 2024? This year I have played 181 games.

[purple-proxy]

What are your reading, watching and play (as in videogames) goals or interests for the upcoming year?

Could be from your pile, could be new and upcoming material too.

[making-itwayne]

guys help what game do I play next I made an entire backlog and now have no will to get through it

[benis-chillin]

Backlog Reviews 2024: Resident Evil 2

Platform: Gamecube

September 8th, 2024-October 6th, 2024

(Previous review)

Well, here we are again, fellers! I ACTUALLY completed a game again!

Well, for LeonA/Claire B, at least.

So my journey with Resident Evil TECHNICALLY began in 2022, where I randomly watched some videos about it while home alone for a day or two…And I had a nightmare that night about zombies breaking into the house and me having to punch them(not in an awesome way, though, more like a "crying and screaming while flying my fists" kinda way). This was probably also provoked by me hearing some noises that caused me to do a "sweep" around the house with a fairly meaty cane before I went to bed, but RE DEFINITELY caused the zombies.

But anyway, that nightmare kinda stuck with me, so I determined to play the Classic Resident Evils to conquer those lingering feelings. To rise above that fear that made me jump at shadows that night…

And my first attempt failed, because I tried to play Deadly Silence on an emulator to circumvent the tank controls, and it did NOT go well, so I ended up dropping it by the time I finally got to that house with the plant.

I was still determined to finish at least ONE, though, so I put RE2 on my backlog list for 2023, didn't get around to it because of reasons stated in my 2023 lookback, and rolled it over to 2024, figuring I'd get to it around September/October time.

Part of why I chose to do the Gamecube version was because of Control mode C, which put the move forward option on a trigger, instead of D-Pad Up like usual, but then something amazing happened this April:

I retried Deadly Silence on an actual DS Lite, swallowing my pride on tank controls, and finished both campaigns. So now, rather than going into RE2 blind to the references and history, moving on a trigger like a jackass, I got to experience it AS a sequel, tank controls and all.

And in that context, I love it! It's a step up in every way from RE1, yet you're JUST familiar enough going in that you can feel the shared DNA. The pre-rendered backgrounds are certainly pixelated as hell, but on a slightly older TV like mine, the characters and objects blend into those environments perfectly!

I argue that there's a certain "grit" to things shot or rendered in non-HD formats. Our eyes compensating for details lost by the old methods truly helps visuals that would be somewhat ho-hum in HD, and that applies here.

The setting of an art museum-turned-police station was also an inspired choice, given these limitations. An important part of these types of games is to choose an interesting and distinct locale to set yourself loose in. Metroid is typically set on an abandoned alien planet or space ship, Batman: Arkham Asylum chose, well, an old-ass asylum, and RE1 used a mansion since they're known for having secrets and puzzles, per most media.

So, combining a mansion-like art museum, with the weapons you'd find in a police station? It's unique, and honestly brilliant, and helps get you into the shoes of a rookie cop surviving the worst first day on the job imaginable, or a sister desperately seeking out her lost brother.

Corny as it may sound, the atmosphere from the setting, combined with the grit for the old pre-renders, genuinely made it feel like I'd been dropped into a horror movie, but I was playing the "smart" character. The one who actually acts rationally in a scenario like this. And the near constant isolation led to this feeling of dread, like I wasn't sure what was gonna come out to get me next. And in Claire's case, while Mr. X was actually barely in it until the end, I felt watched.

The heebie-jeebies are MAJOR in this game, in a way that they honestly just weren't in RE1. The addition of previously cleared hallways getting new zombies kept me guessing in this game, and scares like zombies coming in through a door transition, or Mr. X on a monitor literally RIGHT around the corner…Whew, there's a reason I played this game mostly at night.

There's also the conspiracy angle to all of this, as you read various documents about how much Umbrella is covering their tracks, consequences be damned. You get a feeling that you're uncovering something that could get you killed if you go public about it, but you can't ignore the "reality" around you.

Oh, there I go getting immersed, but how can I NOT be with how nicely the controls were handled? They just felt a bit tighter this time. Maybe the DS Lite's D-pad is smaller than the Wii Classic Pro I used for this game, but walking and running down long hallways had less "drift" than when I played RE1, and it overall just feels better.

Definitely glad I have this controller for RE3 as well.

Well, that's the good stuff, so what DIDN'T I like?

Well, you can get kinda lost in this game, especially in Claire's B scenario. And while I praise their grit, the lack of clarity in some backgrounds can cause this problem to rear its ugly head, because sometimes the background obscures important objects. There is a shine effect for SOME things, but it probably could've been used a bit more to cut down on backtracking. I DID have to use guides for some things, and I rarely felt like I was the stupid one for not noticing them.

This especially rears its head towards the ending of Claire's B scenario, where you have to:

Power up the train, so you gotta get the plugs, then you gotta find this room in the back, completely obscured by the stairway, to put the plugs in, then you gotta fight mutated Mister Sex, but none of your weapons affect him! Oh, but thankfully, Ada got us a rocket launcher, so somehow, you gotta pick that up VERY slowly and carefully, even though he's RIGHT ON YOUR ASS, and can interupt your pick-up animation!

So, you one-shot him, then you race your ass back to the train platform, get rid of all the naked zombies so you can open the gate, then get back into the train so you can get outta here.

ALL IN UNDER 5 MINUTES.

And then the real ending…Is shit, I'm sorry.

The A scenario ending was nice because it let you sit for a minute with what happened, but also had a hopeful note to end on. You entered the world of survival horror, and now, you just escaped it. Sure, it was an FMV, but YOU did the action.

But here, though?

William Birkin's final squid form just needs to get shot a few times, then an FMV does all of the action! Maybe this was cool as shit in 1998, but it did NOT age well, especially with these FMVs where the lip sync is off most times, and everyone moves like they're in Sonic 06.

Like, sure, the animation for the in-game cutscenes…Makes me question why Sonic Adventure's in the same year are looked down on so much, but they blend in better than THESE things.

Hell, the voice acting, which is actually fairly decent for most of the game, takes a dip in quality for the FMVs. Probably the most poorly aged part of the game.

Wait, forgot about tonal whiplash: the ending theme.

So, overall, a good game that holds up WAY better than it probably should, given its technical limitations, but not flawless.

8/10

And now, after I take a quick break, I will be playing through the first Halo through the Master Chief collection on PC! See ya then!

[day1717]

As horrible as this sounds in terms of making actual progress on my backlog... I really want to buy these two games! (Just getting paid & Nintendo eshop sales are tempting me!!) I don't know what's worse buying both these games or an 18 dollar sanrio figure off eBay 🌤️

[mintyfreshka]

Gaming Backlog: The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

I've decided that I want to post more about my experiences playing through my gaming backlog and share my thoughts on stuff that I've been holding off on:

This one was a nice break from the 3rd person action games and 1st person online shooters that I've been spending a lot of time with lately. I don't play a lot of visual-novels or interactive comics, so the presentation of the story through some really charming visuals and quippy writing was really cool to me! Each segment getting broken up by the running minigame was refreshing; and I think the designers did a great job introducing a new mechanic to the hazards that could show up that fit the aesthetic of the section you were playing.

Writing was really fun and didn't take itself very seriously, and the way things wrapped up was cute, which was pretty clearly the aim: to have a fun romp with lots of humor and fanservice, and do a story that wouldn't have worked in another format as well.

I think the ending felt pretty fast-paced compared to everything else with all the information it was throwing at you, and for me that was a little jarring compared to the relatively relaxed leadup.

I still really enjoyed it, and if anyone who has a passing interest in either Sonic or Visual Novels and wants to play a good, free, game; pick it up and bang it out after work one day.

[chronicallysilly2001]

Backlog Entry #1

Batman Arkham Asylum Completed: 10/06/2024 Playtime: 25 Hours Platform: PC Score: 6/10 Completion: 100%

Batman: Arkham Asylum sets a promising foundation for the series, but is unfortunately riddled with flaws that bog down the overall experience.

Let’s start with the positives, the biggest being the combat. The free-flow style combat really comes into its own when you’ve fully upgraded Batman. Weaving between a dozen enemies and knocking them out with your vine boom punches will never cease to be satisfying. On a similar note, the combat and predator challenges were my favorite parts of the game. The predator challenges force you to use Batman’s full arsenal of gadgets in creative ways, which are never truly required in the main game.

It’s unfortunate that many players, myself included, leave the challenges until after completing the main story, as that’s where the game really teaches you how to play it to its fullest potential. After completing all the challenges, I found myself wanting to replay the story with the newfound skills I had learned, but was hesitant because Arkham Asylum doesn’t have a New Game+ mode.

Now onto the negatives….

If you just play through the story without worrying about achievements, you might not notice this as much, but Arkham Asylum is truly miserable to navigate. This becomes painfully clear when collecting the Riddler trophies. Traversing Arkham’s claustrophobic, convoluted corridors—which all look nearly identical—is a tedious task that soured my opinion of the game more and more as I approached 100% completion. The game would have benefited greatly from a waypoint compass to guide you in the right direction, or even a fast travel feature, so you don’t have to constantly pull up the map every few seconds to figure out which vent you need to crawl through to reach your destination.

Rocksteady clearly knew they couldn’t make the entire game about Batman beating up prisoners, so they split up the combat with exploration and stealth sections. However, as I mentioned before, navigating Arkham is a chore, so you can imagine how I feel about the exploration segments. It doesn’t help that the game was released during the height of the “piss filter” PS3/360 era, where everything was tinted with a muddy, yellowish hue. While Arkham Asylum isn’t as bad as most games from that time, it still suffers from muddy textures that blend everything together, making it hard to distinguish small details. The stealth sections also felt lacking because the game doesn’t explain how to fully use your gadgets during the main story, so I found myself relying on the same basic stealth takedowns repeatedly. This isn’t as much of a problem on a second playthrough, but even then, since there’s no New Game+, you won’t have access to all your tools until late in the game.

Another issue is the boss fights. Most of them boil down to dodging the enemy until they make themselves vulnerable, then hitting them with a Batarang. The best boss fights in gaming either let you set the pace of the battle or maintain relentless pressure, forcing you to match their tempo. Here, all the boss fights follow the same one-dimensional pattern of dodging and waiting, making them feel bland and uninspired.

I have a few other minor gripes, such as the lack of a manual save option, but nothing significant enough to merit its own paragraph, so I’ll wrap it up here. Despite the lengthy negative section, I did enjoy this game, and it made me excited to see how the sequels build on what Rocksteady got right and correct where they went wrong.

All in all, it’s a short, fun romp through Arkham Asylum that I’d recommend to any Batman fan.

[joshuaartwork]

@ubernerd527 is back with a brand new review series! Who's goal is to tame his gaming backlog! Check out the introduction to the exciting new series. #gamereviews #nintendo #gamingbacklog #videogames #gamer #ps4 #xboxone

[owlixx]

Entire game series I’ve beaten lately, haven’t updated it in nearly a year and I like this being my pinned post.

[thejazzywaffles]

A sample of my gaming backlog

2064: Read-Only Memories A Highland Song Advance Wars 1+2: ReBoot Camp Aviary Attorney Backpack Hero Bad End Theater Bean and Nothingness Before Your Eyes Blacksad: Under the Skin Cat Notebook Cherry Kisses Chicken Police Chicory: A Colorful Tale Crypt of the NecroDancer Cult of the Lamb Curse of the Sea Rats Day of the Tentacle Death's Door Deus Ex Disc Creatures Duck Detective: The Secret Salami Dwarf Fortress Dynopunk Freedom Planet FTL Fuga: Melodies of Steel Hiveswap Hollow Knight Hush Hush: Only Your Love Can Save Them In Stars and Time Kirby and the Forgotten Land Lacuna Lil Gator Game Loom Makoto Wakaido's Case Files Trilogy DX Metroid Prime Remastered Mondealy Moss Niche Night in the Woods NORCO Omori Ori ATBF Outer Wilds PIVO: Pixel and Voxel Pseudoregalia Rain World Sam & Max Hit the Road Small Saga Sonic Superstars Spirit of the North Super Mario RPG Superhot Tails of Iron Tavern Talk The Cosmic Wheel of Sisterhood The Crimson Diamond The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind The Talos Principle The Walking Dead Them's Fightin' Herds Thistledown: A Tragedy of Blood Tomb Raider Tooth and Tail Tunic Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion Turok Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap

[irrelevant-iguanadon]

Btw squad there's this app on Google play (idk if it's on apple) that tracks your gaming wishlist, backlog, and history and you can write reviews and keep track of starting and end dates for games and it's really neat :)) it's called Stash: Video Game Manager