Orbital Racer(1.72 hours): Won a few races and picked up a few sponsors but not going to play it to much since it is a bit annoying/cheap. Flying around makes me think they simply ripped their environments from Shattered Horizon because the Venus space station and Asteroid race field looks A LOT like several things from that game and it is super weird to catch a shape and immediately think of Shattered Horizon. The game itself is a checkpoint space flying game with dmg and weapons. Using mouse and keyboard you can just point the ship and press W, Pyros dream. Since it does take into account energy you have sharp turns and some curving you need to do to be efficient but by the 7th race I was going against hard CPUs and the only thing screwing me over were EMP missiles. This is the real reason I am not going to try all of the courses, the freaking EMP mines and missiles. Mines you can fly around but for missiles you have to launch flares and the flares have a 25% success rate. You can either wait for an incoming missile message or just hold down the flare button and fly the entire race. The issue is when you are racing and close to each other missiles will have a 100% hit chance so flares are not very useful. Just getting out in front and laying on the speed is the only thing that seems to be very useful in the game. Visuals are pretty good for a small as you get particle effects, light changes, reflections, and some interesting HUD and course markers. If you bought the Ukraine pack you should have a key for this and I think it is worth 45 minutes of play just to see what it looks like. Wish there was LAN or multiplayer built in because it would be a fun party style game for an hour with friends as you play bumper cars on a track.
Raft(17.5 hours): Calling this done as we have completed all of the story line. Pretty fun adventure, crafting survival game. You make a raft from trash you find floating in the open ocean and things you find on the occasional island you run across. There is an aggressive shark that continual attacks your boat ever X minutes. The story is very lose because it amounts to something horrible happened in the world where everything flooded and you are one of the couple of survivors. You need to build and research tools to navigate the ocean and find out what happened.
Games Completed: 181
Time: 12 weeks 95.92 hours
bitburner(1778.6 hours) - text based idle hacking game that uses js. Beat about 1/3 of all of the nodes but really just getting bored since the mechanics never really change. Kind of interesting game to understand how it works and find the better scripts for auto playing plus the strats to make your time between resets less futile.
Games Completed: 182
Time: 12 weeks 100 hours
Maneater(10.6 hours) - 100% on this game for the base version. Game looked fun when I heard about it but I didn't buy it on launch and then within a month it was free on Epic...sweeeeeet. Started playing the game right before and during EXPO which was fun and I did enjoy it though it felt hard to play more than an hour or two straight since you are a shark doing missions and there is very little variance; go here kill these or swim around and find POIs.
The game is a mocumentary style TV show following a shark hunter and shark as they battle it out in the swap lands. Everything is over the top but it really adds to the feel of the game since there are times you have to hop around on land to eat people and munch on a sign post. There are different classes of missions to perform in each region of the map and completing things helps unlock other missions which eventually give you enough resources to evolve/upgrade or unlock new mutations for the shark.
Since you are a shark and the game is not a pure skill based game as you go through you can modify or upgrade the mods on your shark either making you really tough, drop poison around you, or electrocute things. Do enough and you can unlock the entire set for an added bonus. This is useful and also a by-product if you normally work on completing all the missions and this is really needed to complete the final boss fight along with some of the toughest animals like a mad orca or a white sperm whale. The map for sure understands its meta needs and plays to it but a narrator talks the entire time and quickly runs out of lines to cover the very generic actions you do.
The game was a lot of fun expect for the initial grinding needed to get up to lvl 10, max lvl 30. You do get free play after beating the boss and they do a short lead into their DLC for a new side campaign but it didn't feel very compelling plus it raises the lvl cap to 40 so eh for a free game.
Orcs Must Die 3(32.2hours): Been waiting to play this game. @Massalinie and I plowed through the campaign together because since OMD2 it seemed like several maps are designed for two people, unless you play the silly meta. The game feels the same with just two new characters and new maps, which is good. There are new WAR maps where you get access to some large scale traps like a squad of archers or massive spring/freeze pads. The normal difficulty is a bit easy for most of the maps until they decide to throw a dozen runners at you or some other BS designed to kill a perfect run. However, the hard difficulty is so freaking over the top I hate it. Passed a couple maps but then quickly it became apparent the traps are pointless you have to play the DPS meta to actually clear levels on that difficulty which I hate. I want a tower defense game not a hack and slash that requires only min/max metas.
Still had a lot of fun playing it through campaign, endless, and the scramble mode. Going back for perfects on levels and learning how to screw up the enemy AI routing is fun.
Cyberpunk 2077 (78.7 hours): I need more stuff to do. Just buy the game and do all the things. There are still a good number of bugs and issues but so much polish in random places when you get lost and take a random turn it is mind blowing. Judy.
Games Completed: 185
Time: 13 weeks 53.5 hours
Borderlands 3 (38.75 hours): The story felt slightly disjointed because you are planet hoping while doing your shooting and looting. Separate planets does help the plot change its tone drastically. There were a lot of shocks and turns but nothing felt like a "this is point". Free game from Epic and well worth the play time.
Games Completed: 186
Time: 13 weeks 92.25 hours
The Banner Saga 2(10.1 hours): They wrote this to be a middle game. The sequel game is of course a continuation of the story from the first game. You can import your save so your choices carry through the game play. Battles seemed a little tougher than I remembered them from the first game which resulted in a few fights being very frustrating since I was having issues cracking them. There aren't as many story lines happening in this one but it does really fill in the plot story. New battle features were introduced which is kind of nice but they also seemed to be easy to cheese stuff with since they are more advanced attacks or character builds.
Grouned(60 hours): Played with @Massalinie and EmpireRoman through most of the game and Shaun dropped in for the last few weeks. This was all part of our normal Wednesday night gaming we do as a group. Grounded is honestly a fun exploration game because the map is sooo big that you can play the entire game while skipping or not finding whole areas of the backyard. Also the same strat doesn't carry through in all areas of the map because you have to deal with infected insects, underwater parts, burning hot areas, high DPS aggressive bugs, and the list keeps going on. The only draw back we really decided on was that the building mechanic was a little rough when compared to RAFT. Having to collect so many resources and transport them long distances is a massive time sink especially when some areas you have to build something specific to access it which requires chopping huge amounts of grass and then transporting it. Still a great fun game to play with others while slowly becoming the most dangerous life form in the backyard.
Banner Saga 3(7.8 hours): Man the final game is brutal with what it makes you go through. On Normal so many of the battles felt like cliff hangers no matter how I played them. There is an interesting change up on how to manage your parties in the majority of the game and again it was just brutal because you know how hard of an impact one parties decisions affect the others. Everything was extremely captivating in the final hours of the game but sitting hear it makes you realize a lot of your choices were entirely pointless.
Stolen Realm (27 hours): This is a procedural turn based dungeon crawler. DnD with polygons. The game is pretty fun especially with friends as you can run a 6 person party. You pick missions to complete and each map is random plus providing you choices as you move into each area. Stuff goes start a mission, make a choice between rest/shop/treasure/encounter/battle, then finally a boss battle. Town is basically a hub of some specific vendors as all missions are a full encounter you warp to. There is a story but it isn't very compelling. Several bugs happen which might require you to replay some parts but other bugs are hilarious like dead bodies jittering across the map or slowly flying off into the nether.
Go Home Dinosaurs (11 hours): Oh tower defense why do you do this to me. Can't upgrade towers, limited towers to use, have to use power cards, don't get currency to place towers by killing enemies. Its just not the same but I still enjoyed trying to figure my way through the puzzles. You are a goofer having a BBQ with steaks that Dinosaurs are trying to steal and you have to collect coconuts to build your towers. BTW you only get a max of 9 towers+powers to use per map once you unlock all of the slots so learn the combos. There is a veggie mode where you are grilling carrots in case you don't like meat. 3/4th of the maps you can just free form them once you understand some basic combos but the rest always have some little trick or tight timing to be able to make it. Relatively easy game to 100% but with so little variation between maps and enemy types you would need to grind for a few extra hours after finishing to get there.
MCC Halo CE(10.4 hours): Never have I ever played so many maps in reverse. The flood or just BS enemies with melee range and randomly baking off spare grenades.....the freaking library. One down and more to go. The remastered textures sure do make doors hard to find and in half the levels I did appreciate the original textures where stuff looked more like rocks and ledges so things got a bit more definition instead of a lot of ramps or mounded textures. Jumping segments were so terrible honestly how did MC never learn to jump in basic. Cortana I got u grl.
MCC HALO 2(7 hours): The story is sooo good. Really sucked me in during the explanations of the covenant and the politicking going on between the races. I did turn it down from Legendary because I had gotten so frustrated from being one shoted turning corners in HALO CE, still a decent amount of the same but at least it was telegraphed a bit better. Most annoying part of the game design is honestly the model hit boxes as I watch grenades clip through or grenade rounds slip past. Half the levels are just me saying "excuse me, pardon me" as I run through the level avoiding the warring factions.
MCC HALO 3(4.6 hours): Wow that was a lot shorter it seemed like the level of detail dropped off a good bit, the cut scenes were worse than what I remember for 2. Master Chief's day just keeps getting worse, more of the same thing as yesterday with shoot shoot and blow up a HALO. The fact the level design never gets better by the 3rd game is kind of lame, lots of back tracking because why make more of a level when you can force people to walk it twice. Oh well half way through the collection.
Valheim (32.1 hours): Didn't complete as the game kept crashing my entire computer for some unknown reason. Kind of fun but rather annoying as the resource gathering for gear is so intensive everything at all levels is a grind. Sailing was kind of fun but it also made me realize there are no positive forces in the game world only negative as the wind seemed to 75% of the time be against the direction the boat was pointing and so many environmental things that are meant to make the game harder at just a basic level.
@_k I love reading your reviews. When you post one, maybe post a link in the gaming channel on discord to get more people to see your reviews, because they are genuinely helpful!
Bloons TD6 (58.50 hours+): Some how I have almost 60 hours in this game and I honestly would say it was only 20ish. But that Bloons life just keeps sucking me back in just when I thought I got out! Free on Epic because I grew up playing Bloons flash and you aren't gonna make me pay for a flash game, totally not a flash game any more. There is a bunch of meta stuff going on now in the game which gives it a lot of confusing aspects when you just want to play a TD game that is silly and over the top. Between all the different map levels, variations, top level skill tree, and monkey XP unlocks there is so much to do in the game. I haven't even gotten into the intermediate levels really as I am still plugging away on the Baby stuff. Pretty sure they will make an Escape from Detroit movie before I finish this game and all its content, not touching anything online because I know whats out there.
Bloons Adventure Time TD(5.9 hours): I rage quit on this one. Basically got no where and the game either expects you to grind old levels or pay a bunch of money because tower leveling isn't XP based but crate drop based. Then in the beginning there is NO WAY to clear some levels without using powers and powers have limited charges but don't worry you can buy more charges for 100 coin but clearing a level doesn't yield 100 coin so you MUST grind the easiest maps to get coins so you can grind medium levels to get drops for characters. Its all a grab screw that.
Games Completed: 196
Time: 14 weeks 158.65 hours
Comments
Orbital Racer(1.72 hours): Won a few races and picked up a few sponsors but not going to play it to much since it is a bit annoying/cheap. Flying around makes me think they simply ripped their environments from Shattered Horizon because the Venus space station and Asteroid race field looks A LOT like several things from that game and it is super weird to catch a shape and immediately think of Shattered Horizon. The game itself is a checkpoint space flying game with dmg and weapons. Using mouse and keyboard you can just point the ship and press W, Pyros dream. Since it does take into account energy you have sharp turns and some curving you need to do to be efficient but by the 7th race I was going against hard CPUs and the only thing screwing me over were EMP missiles. This is the real reason I am not going to try all of the courses, the freaking EMP mines and missiles. Mines you can fly around but for missiles you have to launch flares and the flares have a 25% success rate. You can either wait for an incoming missile message or just hold down the flare button and fly the entire race. The issue is when you are racing and close to each other missiles will have a 100% hit chance so flares are not very useful. Just getting out in front and laying on the speed is the only thing that seems to be very useful in the game. Visuals are pretty good for a small as you get particle effects, light changes, reflections, and some interesting HUD and course markers. If you bought the Ukraine pack you should have a key for this and I think it is worth 45 minutes of play just to see what it looks like. Wish there was LAN or multiplayer built in because it would be a fun party style game for an hour with friends as you play bumper cars on a track.
Games Completed: 180
Time: 12 weeks 78.42 hours
Raft(17.5 hours): Calling this done as we have completed all of the story line. Pretty fun adventure, crafting survival game. You make a raft from trash you find floating in the open ocean and things you find on the occasional island you run across. There is an aggressive shark that continual attacks your boat ever X minutes. The story is very lose because it amounts to something horrible happened in the world where everything flooded and you are one of the couple of survivors. You need to build and research tools to navigate the ocean and find out what happened.
Games Completed: 181
Time: 12 weeks 95.92 hours
bitburner(1778.6 hours) - text based idle hacking game that uses js. Beat about 1/3 of all of the nodes but really just getting bored since the mechanics never really change. Kind of interesting game to understand how it works and find the better scripts for auto playing plus the strats to make your time between resets less futile.
Games Completed: 182
Time: 12 weeks 100 hours
Maneater(10.6 hours) - 100% on this game for the base version. Game looked fun when I heard about it but I didn't buy it on launch and then within a month it was free on Epic...sweeeeeet. Started playing the game right before and during EXPO which was fun and I did enjoy it though it felt hard to play more than an hour or two straight since you are a shark doing missions and there is very little variance; go here kill these or swim around and find POIs.
The game is a mocumentary style TV show following a shark hunter and shark as they battle it out in the swap lands. Everything is over the top but it really adds to the feel of the game since there are times you have to hop around on land to eat people and munch on a sign post. There are different classes of missions to perform in each region of the map and completing things helps unlock other missions which eventually give you enough resources to evolve/upgrade or unlock new mutations for the shark.
Since you are a shark and the game is not a pure skill based game as you go through you can modify or upgrade the mods on your shark either making you really tough, drop poison around you, or electrocute things. Do enough and you can unlock the entire set for an added bonus. This is useful and also a by-product if you normally work on completing all the missions and this is really needed to complete the final boss fight along with some of the toughest animals like a mad orca or a white sperm whale. The map for sure understands its meta needs and plays to it but a narrator talks the entire time and quickly runs out of lines to cover the very generic actions you do.
The game was a lot of fun expect for the initial grinding needed to get up to lvl 10, max lvl 30. You do get free play after beating the boss and they do a short lead into their DLC for a new side campaign but it didn't feel very compelling plus it raises the lvl cap to 40 so eh for a free game.
Games Completed: 183
Time: 12 weeks 110.6 hours
Orcs Must Die 3(32.2hours): Been waiting to play this game. @Massalinie and I plowed through the campaign together because since OMD2 it seemed like several maps are designed for two people, unless you play the silly meta. The game feels the same with just two new characters and new maps, which is good. There are new WAR maps where you get access to some large scale traps like a squad of archers or massive spring/freeze pads. The normal difficulty is a bit easy for most of the maps until they decide to throw a dozen runners at you or some other BS designed to kill a perfect run. However, the hard difficulty is so freaking over the top I hate it. Passed a couple maps but then quickly it became apparent the traps are pointless you have to play the DPS meta to actually clear levels on that difficulty which I hate. I want a tower defense game not a hack and slash that requires only min/max metas.
Still had a lot of fun playing it through campaign, endless, and the scramble mode. Going back for perfects on levels and learning how to screw up the enemy AI routing is fun.
Games Completed: 184
Time: 12 weeks 142.8 hours
Cyberpunk 2077 (78.7 hours): I need more stuff to do. Just buy the game and do all the things. There are still a good number of bugs and issues but so much polish in random places when you get lost and take a random turn it is mind blowing. Judy.
Games Completed: 185
Time: 13 weeks 53.5 hours
Borderlands 3 (38.75 hours): The story felt slightly disjointed because you are planet hoping while doing your shooting and looting. Separate planets does help the plot change its tone drastically. There were a lot of shocks and turns but nothing felt like a "this is point". Free game from Epic and well worth the play time.
Games Completed: 186
Time: 13 weeks 92.25 hours
The Banner Saga 2(10.1 hours): They wrote this to be a middle game. The sequel game is of course a continuation of the story from the first game. You can import your save so your choices carry through the game play. Battles seemed a little tougher than I remembered them from the first game which resulted in a few fights being very frustrating since I was having issues cracking them. There aren't as many story lines happening in this one but it does really fill in the plot story. New battle features were introduced which is kind of nice but they also seemed to be easy to cheese stuff with since they are more advanced attacks or character builds.
Games Completed:187
Time: 13 weeks 102.35 hours
Grouned(60 hours): Played with @Massalinie and EmpireRoman through most of the game and Shaun dropped in for the last few weeks. This was all part of our normal Wednesday night gaming we do as a group. Grounded is honestly a fun exploration game because the map is sooo big that you can play the entire game while skipping or not finding whole areas of the backyard. Also the same strat doesn't carry through in all areas of the map because you have to deal with infected insects, underwater parts, burning hot areas, high DPS aggressive bugs, and the list keeps going on. The only draw back we really decided on was that the building mechanic was a little rough when compared to RAFT. Having to collect so many resources and transport them long distances is a massive time sink especially when some areas you have to build something specific to access it which requires chopping huge amounts of grass and then transporting it. Still a great fun game to play with others while slowly becoming the most dangerous life form in the backyard.
Games Completed: 188
Time: 13 weeks 162.35 hours
Banner Saga 3(7.8 hours): Man the final game is brutal with what it makes you go through. On Normal so many of the battles felt like cliff hangers no matter how I played them. There is an interesting change up on how to manage your parties in the majority of the game and again it was just brutal because you know how hard of an impact one parties decisions affect the others. Everything was extremely captivating in the final hours of the game but sitting hear it makes you realize a lot of your choices were entirely pointless.
Games Completed: 189
Time: 14 weeks 2.15 hours
Stolen Realm (27 hours): This is a procedural turn based dungeon crawler. DnD with polygons. The game is pretty fun especially with friends as you can run a 6 person party. You pick missions to complete and each map is random plus providing you choices as you move into each area. Stuff goes start a mission, make a choice between rest/shop/treasure/encounter/battle, then finally a boss battle. Town is basically a hub of some specific vendors as all missions are a full encounter you warp to. There is a story but it isn't very compelling. Several bugs happen which might require you to replay some parts but other bugs are hilarious like dead bodies jittering across the map or slowly flying off into the nether.
Games Completed: 190
Time: 14 weeks 29.15 hours
Go Home Dinosaurs (11 hours): Oh tower defense why do you do this to me. Can't upgrade towers, limited towers to use, have to use power cards, don't get currency to place towers by killing enemies. Its just not the same but I still enjoyed trying to figure my way through the puzzles. You are a goofer having a BBQ with steaks that Dinosaurs are trying to steal and you have to collect coconuts to build your towers. BTW you only get a max of 9 towers+powers to use per map once you unlock all of the slots so learn the combos. There is a veggie mode where you are grilling carrots in case you don't like meat. 3/4th of the maps you can just free form them once you understand some basic combos but the rest always have some little trick or tight timing to be able to make it. Relatively easy game to 100% but with so little variation between maps and enemy types you would need to grind for a few extra hours after finishing to get there.
Games Completed: 191
Time: 14 weeks 40.15 hours
MCC Halo CE(10.4 hours): Never have I ever played so many maps in reverse. The flood or just BS enemies with melee range and randomly baking off spare grenades.....the freaking library. One down and more to go. The remastered textures sure do make doors hard to find and in half the levels I did appreciate the original textures where stuff looked more like rocks and ledges so things got a bit more definition instead of a lot of ramps or mounded textures. Jumping segments were so terrible honestly how did MC never learn to jump in basic. Cortana I got u grl.
Games Completed: 191
Time: 14 weeks 50.55 hours
MCC HALO 2(7 hours): The story is sooo good. Really sucked me in during the explanations of the covenant and the politicking going on between the races. I did turn it down from Legendary because I had gotten so frustrated from being one shoted turning corners in HALO CE, still a decent amount of the same but at least it was telegraphed a bit better. Most annoying part of the game design is honestly the model hit boxes as I watch grenades clip through or grenade rounds slip past. Half the levels are just me saying "excuse me, pardon me" as I run through the level avoiding the warring factions.
Games Completed: 192
Time: 14 weeks 57.55 hours
MCC HALO 3(4.6 hours): Wow that was a lot shorter it seemed like the level of detail dropped off a good bit, the cut scenes were worse than what I remember for 2. Master Chief's day just keeps getting worse, more of the same thing as yesterday with shoot shoot and blow up a HALO. The fact the level design never gets better by the 3rd game is kind of lame, lots of back tracking because why make more of a level when you can force people to walk it twice. Oh well half way through the collection.
Games Completed: 193
Time: 14 weeks 62.15 hours
Valheim (32.1 hours): Didn't complete as the game kept crashing my entire computer for some unknown reason. Kind of fun but rather annoying as the resource gathering for gear is so intensive everything at all levels is a grind. Sailing was kind of fun but it also made me realize there are no positive forces in the game world only negative as the wind seemed to 75% of the time be against the direction the boat was pointing and so many environmental things that are meant to make the game harder at just a basic level.
Games Completed: 194
Time: 14 weeks 94.25 hours
@_k I love reading your reviews. When you post one, maybe post a link in the gaming channel on discord to get more people to see your reviews, because they are genuinely helpful!
Bloons TD6 (58.50 hours+): Some how I have almost 60 hours in this game and I honestly would say it was only 20ish. But that Bloons life just keeps sucking me back in just when I thought I got out! Free on Epic because I grew up playing Bloons flash and you aren't gonna make me pay for a flash game, totally not a flash game any more. There is a bunch of meta stuff going on now in the game which gives it a lot of confusing aspects when you just want to play a TD game that is silly and over the top. Between all the different map levels, variations, top level skill tree, and monkey XP unlocks there is so much to do in the game. I haven't even gotten into the intermediate levels really as I am still plugging away on the Baby stuff. Pretty sure they will make an Escape from Detroit movie before I finish this game and all its content, not touching anything online because I know whats out there.
Games Completed: 195
Time: 14 weeks 152.75 hours
Bloons Adventure Time TD(5.9 hours): I rage quit on this one. Basically got no where and the game either expects you to grind old levels or pay a bunch of money because tower leveling isn't XP based but crate drop based. Then in the beginning there is NO WAY to clear some levels without using powers and powers have limited charges but don't worry you can buy more charges for 100 coin but clearing a level doesn't yield 100 coin so you MUST grind the easiest maps to get coins so you can grind medium levels to get drops for characters. Its all a grab screw that.
Games Completed: 196
Time: 14 weeks 158.65 hours