Main ListPrevious Listbold games are games that have been beaten, previously beaten, or are unbeatable.
italicized games are in progress.
standard games are games I am not currently trying to beat.
strikethrough games are games that have been abandoned.
98.
Paratopic (PC)
I kind of have no clue what's going on this game, except maybe you're smuggling a cursed VHS tape, or maybe VHS tapes are special... I don't know, it's weird. Just a really weird game, there isn't a ton of game play to it either and it's relatively short at around an hour. The game is broken down into sections with various, mechanics, I guess. The driving sections are weirdly stressful as nothing is going on and you're just kind of driving for a few minutes, I think there's a a handful of achievements related to driving, but the controls aren't well explained, so I think I missed like all of those achievements because I think there is a way to drive faster, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to do that. You infrequently have some camera based gameplay where you take some pictures, very minor, maybe less than the driving. The rest of the gameplay is first person walking simulator with some minor interactions as you proceed from point A to point B. The game has almost no action, except maybe right at the end for the ending. Just a really weird game with an incomprehensible story.
Rating: Soft pass
99.
GUILTY GEAR Xrd REV 2 (PC)
Like a lot of the other games on the list this year, I'm playing through games I won on steam gifts in an effort to increase my play rate on games won. For the most part, when I pick up a game, I aim to beat the game so I can be "done" with it, with a minimal side goal of also getting 25% of achievements. I'm also using it as an opportunity to get some games off of my PoP lists that I'd rather not be forced to play in a time frame. I'm not big on fighting games, I think it's that I just have no interest in learning the intricacies of the game's systems and combos and whatnot, if I cared, I could probably get good enough, but I just don't have the interest in the time investment, so I'll almost never have a good recommendation for fighting games unless something else about the game sticks out like the story in Mortal Kombat games. I tried to follow the story mode, which is essentially just a series of kinetic visual novel esque scenes with no gameplay, didn't really enjoy that but I suppose the concept is novel, I just wasn't expecting or in the mood for a VN let alone a kinetic one. I played through arcade mode as Jack-O I think and got achievements and whatnot. Really don't know what's going on story wise in the game or series overall, but I'm also not really willing to invest myself in the story, but maybe one day? Unfortunately, I'm a scrub and button mash in fighting games when I don't understand the controls and systems... it's enough to get me through story mode/arcade generally, and in this case it was, so I've got no good information to provide regarding the games mechanics and gameplay. I did play through the tutorial to learn some of the controls and it went well enough, but I did have some trouble with the advanced concepts. Game seems easy enough to pick up, but surely difficult to master.
Rating: Soft pass
100.
Diluvian Winds (PC)
Another win I played to improve my rate. Initially I had intended on just getting the 25% goal without beating the game, but as I played the game I decided that I would aim to beat the game because I was enjoying it well enough and the game did have a set of story/chapter based achievements where I could definitively say, yes I've beaten this. Each chapter of the game teaches you new mechanics to the game basically playing out as a long winded tutorial which culminates in you "beating" the game. It allows you to continue playing or start a new game, but at that point it's an endless game once you've played through the story of learning all of the game's mechanics. Not some short tutorial, but a nice long series of requests and features drawn out over a series of like a month of in game gameplay. The game is in essence a city builder, resource management game, but the game's play is very casual in nature allowing you to take your time in making your decisions and planning out your days while keeping an eye on any looming or upcoming events.
Rating: Soft recommendation
101.
Escape This (PC)
I think I was collating data from my steam account to backloggery and noticed that I was only missing one achievement in this game and that that achievement would only take a few minutes to achieve. I don't recall ever playing this game in the first place, but apparently I played it like ten years ago. Don't know where the game came from, I could look it up, but I won't. Game looks like a real cheap game, like something that was probably given away for free, and I suspect I probably didn't put much time into it for it giving me the 100% overall. Janky move the ball through the puzzle type of game.
Rating: Hard pass
102.
Tooth and Tail (PC)
Another gift win that I decided to play to get my play rate up. Started it and realized I needed to play through it because I really wanted it off my play list. I'm not a big fan of RTS games, I really dislike RTS games because they require constant time and resource management and an intricate understanding of the game's systems and AI. I followed a guide to a T for this one because I knew I couldn't push myself to invest the effort in learning the game's systems and I'm just not at a point that I can really enjoy non-casual strategy games. One day I'll push myself to play the older Fire Emblem games and I'll have the same thoughts and feelings I'm sure. I had a lot of trouble telling when a character was on my team, neutral, or an enemy, so that made the game even more difficult for me. It also doesn't help that throughout the game you swap what faction you are, so you have to constantly pay attention to what color you are and what color your enemy is... and I'm color blind. I breezed through the game so I didn't really pay attention to the story, but I could tell that the story was an interesting seeming story, but seems to end with mutual destruction at the end? I can't fairly rate fighting games and strategy games because I just don't enjoy those types of games. I've started making a habit of hiding such games so I can't win those gifts as I know I won't enjoy them. Unfortunately, I thought this game was just a general strategy game with high praise so I went for it not realizing it's an RTS game.
Rating: Soft pass
103.
100 Korea Cats (PC)
A group I'm in was having an event for playing hidden object games so I went out and picked a few profile limited hidden object games that I could play that I knew could not benefit me on playtracker and went through and played them. Just went and grabbed 3 100 cats games that I owned or were free that were profile limited and played through them. Took all of 5-10 minutes each again not any different from the other 100 x cats games.
Rating: Soft pass
104.
100 Funny Cats (PC)
See previous review
Rating: Soft pass
105.
100 Alient Cats (PC)
See previous review
Rating: Soft pass
106.
Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry (X1)
This is the oldest AC game I hadn't played. I had it via PS+, when I had the service, but I never played it because I knew I wanted to play it on Xbox with all of my other AC games. I'm weird about it for no good reason. I only relatively recently, within the last year or so, bought the season pass/freedom cry for Xbox and the game came up as a choice in playtracker dungeon, so I finally decided I'd play it to make a little bit more progress on my Assassin's Creed franchise run. Unfortunately, I should've played this years ago, as I'm certain the age difference and mechanical disadvantage of going back to an old game after playing Origins was going to be a problem. I don't fully remember the story of Black Flag, just that it was one of the better AC games of the early years. I don't really remember who Adawale(?) is within the story other than maybe a mentor to the protagonist, but the game serves as a backstory to the character. Game has limited stealth sections where most of the game seems to take place during the day where you're going to get caught up in open combat if you engage, as far as I can remember there was only 1 forced stealth section and it was quite painful because enemies would detect me through walls (by sight, not sound as I was crouched and slow), have to repeat the whole section due to mistakes, and overall jank. Ship combat is fine as I recall and relatively few and far between and quick enough when it did occur. There is islands to be explored, but seems to be purely optional as most of the content takes place between 2 or 3 locales. Story feels quick well, but doesn't feel like it really links well to the whole templar/assassin overall story nor the modern content at all, despite the story being interesting and giving backstory to what I assume was a well liked character. The slave liberation content is fine enough, but quickly you realize that almost all of it is repeatable content and there is no hard limit to the amount you can save and enemies frequently respawn in their same patterns, which is probably a regular mechanic of the series, but having played Origins recently, I recall cleared areas staying cleared for at least a while. Parkour mechanics are pretty awful, but might be on par with Black Flag and maybe I'm spoiled by recent games. Overall, not bad, doesn't contribute much to the overall story, but an enjoyable enough experience.
Rating: Soft pass
107.
Fling to the Finish (PC)
One of those games that is designed for couch co-op, but completely playable start to finish with a single player using a single controller. controls work well enough, but do frequently get confusing when the left ball swaps sides with the right ball, but the controls obviously don't switch which stick controls which ball. Game has 7-8 mechanics that repeat, making the game last significantly longer than you might otherwise want, given having to replay levels over and over with different rules, but the game has something around 20-40 levels to play, so lots of content, but the extra rules makes the game feel like too long of an experience, but overall the experience is enjoyable start to finish without too much jank. Unlike other co-op games, this game is quite enjoyable as a solo experience, possibly more enjoyable lacking the frustration of forced cooperation. That said, the repetitive nature and simplistic gameplay doesn't really make the game well worth playing.
Rating: Soft pass
108.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (360)
I started this game years ago when I was going through my Metal Gear franchise run, but I just never finished this one. I think I didn't get terribly far into it before I abandoned it and I can't quite recall why I abandoned it, but surely it was partly due to the fact that that era of gaming just didn't click with me where so many games felt the same way XBLA indie games felt... it's ineffable but they just don't click with me. This, like Yaiba Ninja Gaiden Z, just sort of bored me very quickly with its combination of gameplay and pacing, despite generally wacky story telling, Ninja Gaiden being another game I keep very slowly making progress on. This time I sat down and said I would not abandon it and I would not move on until I finished it. It made the experience a little hard as I was definitely having the problem of trying not to fall asleep while playing, more a commentary on myself than the game to be honest. I've never been big on hack and slash games as they essentially feel like button mashing fighting games in a PvE story based setting, not unlike Musou games. Gameplay wise, they just don't click with me for several reasons, which the general gameplay bore also makes it difficult for me to consume the story content (A big reason why I really don't recall much of the DMC series unfortunately) and this one being a side story set well after the events of the mainline series with limited callbacks strictly to MGS2 (Maybe a little bit MGS4, but lets be honest I don't remember that one much either). The game has a lot of the same jank you get from other Konami/Capcom hack and slash games and takes itself about as seriously as DMC. A fun game for most I'm sure, but how it truly relates to the mainline MGS franchise and lore we'll never know.
Rating: Soft pass
109.
A Game About Digging A Hole (PC)
I bought this a while back because it is quite a cheap game and it was stupidly popular for a while, but as always I don't get around to these things until way later. The game quite honestly feels like a cheap imitation of another game, despite it being its own unique thing (AFAIK). Despite the jank, the game does require a certain level of planning and strategy between balancing money, lighting, equipment, resources, and general traversal maintenance. Game starts out monotonous enough, but gradually get a bit unhinged culminating in the final ending. Overall a real simple, cheap, janky game that will definitely eat up more hours than dollars, despite no real pay off, maybe that'll disappoint, but the game is a decent time waster akin to Powerwash simulator.
Rating: Soft recommendation
110.
Cats Hidden in Japan (PC)
Another find the cats in a location game, you can see any of many previous reviews for these types of games, nothing really special, easily completed in 5-10 minutes.
Rating: Soft pass
111.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (360)
Man, this is just a year for picking up old franchise runs with games around the early 10s.