Steam
84 entries. 55,461 words.
2012-12
-
My First Look at Skyrim.
2012-12-08.
I finally got Skyrim in a Steam sale. I’m not sure exactly what I expected but I kind of thought it would be something a bit more … well, different from Oblivion. All of the same annoying things from Oblivion are still there in Skyrim.
The most annoying of which is when five people walk up to you and start talking at the same time. While you’re already talking to someone else.
- RPG
- Single-Player
- Steam
2013-02
-
Upcoming 2013 Games.
2013-02-23.
Looking at upcoming PC games for 2013, I’m only seeing three that I think I’ll buy when they come out: Bioshock Infinite, Elder Scrolls Online, and Neverwinter. GTA V is a possibility but I think I can wait for a Steam sale on that one. (Especially since GTA 4 sucked.)
- Musings
- Status
- Steam
2013-07
-
The Walking Dead Game Bites.
2013-07-24.
Ha ha! Wasn’t that hilarious? Anyway I’m currently bored to death with all existing MMOs, so I’ve turned to my Steam library to find a game that will hold my attention for more than a few hours.
I tried Rogue Legacy, which the GWJ people raved about. I can see why they liked it, but it’s basically a side-scrolling platformer and I’ve never liked platformers. It would take me a long time to get the hang of the controls, and at least in the first hour of play, I didn’t see where there’s any reward for spending the time to learn the controls.
- Steam
-
The Walking Dead Game Episode 3.
2013-07-25.
Finished The Walking Dead (game) Episode 3. This one seemed considerably longer and to drag a bit more than the previous two. There were times when I just wanted it to move forward without having to go through the adventure-style puzzle solving. In those times I would say that the gameplay was getting in the way of the story.
I’m thinking in particular of a time on the train toward the end of the episode, when you had to get a map, but someone was in the way and wouldn’t move, so you had to find a way to get him to move on his own, but I didn’t really realize that’s what I was supposed to be doing, and the way you had to do it was pretty convoluted and strange.
- Steam
2013-12
-
Stanley’s Parable.
2013-12-05.
One night I didn’t feel like playing an MMO. It happened to be a night where there was a Steam sale on Stanley’s Parable, a game I’ve heard a lot about, so I got that and played it.
First of all, it’s not a game. There needs to be another category for this kind of thing. Something like Interactive Art Project or Interactive Entertainment. (It’s similar to Gone Home in that regard.
- Steam
2014-01
-
Steam’s Fall and Winter 2013 Sales.
2014-01-08.
Remember the good old days when you could buy tons of awesome AAA games from Steam for ridiculously low prices? Yeah, I think those days are over.
I was pretty disappointed in the Fall and Winter Steam Sales this time around. Almost all of the AAA games I saw on deep discount sales ($10 or less) were ones that I had already bought in earlier sales. (I still haven’t played 90% of them.
- Steam
2015-01
-
Year End 2014.
2015-01-01.
In most Steam sales, I have a fairly strict cut-off point of avoiding anything unless it is under $10. Over the past year or so, I’ve rarely found anything meeting that criteria that I don’t already have, so I was a bit surprised to find myself buying nine games in this Winter Steam Sale, including Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, The Walking Dead Season 2, Murdered: Soul Suspect, Democracy 3, Contagion, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Dominions 4, Thief, and Transistor.
- MMORPG
- Opinion
- Status
- Steam
2015-02
-
How To Survive (A Game, Not A Guide).
2015-02-09.
In January, I went through a phase where I wanted to play some survival-type games. Perhaps I was inspired by the news that H1Z1 rushed itself out the door too soon came to Steam Early Access. I already had TUG and Don’t Starve, but they never really grabbed me. (I keep hoping TUG will improve.) I have a bunch of these kinds of games on my Steam wishlist, but as I’m sure you know, 99% of them are still Early Access (including TUG), so I tried to find something else.
- Reviews
- Single-Player
- Steam
- Survival
-
The Forest, A Visual Feast.
2015-02-11.
In January, I went through a phase where I wanted to play some survival-type games. I’ve been intrigued by The Forest ever since I first saw it show up on Steam, but I generally try to resist buying Early Access games, particularly from unknown sources. Until one day when I was bored out of my mind with my current games and wanted to look at something new. And hey, it was only $15.
- Pre-Release
- Reviews
- Single-Player
- Steam
-
State of Decay Is A-OK.
2015-02-17.
In January, I went through a phase where I wanted to play some survival-type games. The first game I pulled out was State of Decay, which I already had on Steam.
I’m probably the last person to discover this, but State of Decay is pretty cool. I had played it before, somewhere back when it first came to the PC I think, but it didn’t really “click” with me the first time.
- Reviews
- Single-Player
- Steam
- Survival
2015-06
-
Dabbling In The Witcher 3.
2015-06-03.
I’ve been dabbling with The Witcher 3 off and on since it came out, as I’m sure almost everyone who plays RPGs has. After playing The Witcher 2 there was no possibility that I wasn’t going to get the third installment. Anyone who has even a slight interest in single-player, story-based RPGs should get it without hesitation.
That said, I haven’t yet been wowed or completely absorbed by it, but I’m enjoying it.
- Single-Player
- Status
- Steam
-
Besiege – Failing Is Fun.
2015-06-15.
I found a hilarious physics/building game in the Steam summer sale… Besiege. There’s something about it that just makes me laugh and laugh. It’s pretty unique in that the most fun part of the game is failing. The more spectacular the failure, the more fun it is. It’s still early access but I give it a thumbs up.
I’ll be honest, in the following videos, I was more concerned about running over the chickens than anything else.
- Reviews
- Single-Player
- Steam
2015-07
-
Why I Didn’t Buy H1Z1 For $10.
2015-07-06.
H1Z1 is one of those early access games that I have a mild interest in playing, if for no other reason than that it looks pretty. In the recent Steam sale, it was discounted 50% to $9.99, which is under that magic $10 mark where I will buy just about anything in any condition. I hovered over the Buy button…
But then I started to think.
I wondered what my reward would be for buying now-what cool stuff I would get after the game launches.
- MMORPG
- Pre-Release
- Steam
2015-10
-
ARK – I “Finally” Bought It.
2015-10-31.
Okay, I just caved and bought ARK in the Steam Halloween sale for $20. Normally I try not to buy Early Access games unless they’re $10 or $15 but I keep hearing everyone talk about this game and I didn’t want to be the last person in the world to buy it … on launch day. :)
- Status
- Steam
- Survival
2015-11
-
Fallout 4 – Better Than Expected.
2015-11-12.
I must confess that I did not like Fallout 3 and New Vegas as much as everyone else did. To me, Fallout 3 was exactly the same game as Oblivion, which I had already played enough to be tired of it. So after I finished the main Fallout 3 story, I was done with it. (Steam reports that I played some crazy number of hours, but that was only because I left it running 24/7 on a secondary PC.
- Reviews
- RPG
- Single-Player
- Steam
2015-12
-
Trying Bound By Flame.
2015-12-02.
Normally I would write about a new game I tried, but since I never have the time or energy to write anymore, I thought it might be fun to record my first hour of play instead. (Fun for me, at least.) This time I tried out Bound By Flame, an action RPG I got for around $5 in the recent Steam sale. In short, it’s pretty average.
- RPG
- Single-Player
- Steam
- Videos
-
Fallout 4 – Wrapping Up.
2015-12-07.
I finished the main story in Fallout 4 (I think) and I don’t see myself going back very much any more.
I reached a point where I almost decided to quit the game. Like a lot of people, and like the game almost forces you to do from the beginning, I kept trying to maintain my Minuteman settlements. I was under the illusion that it was a side quest chain that would eventually end, at which point I would resume the main story.
- RPG
- Single-Player
- Status
- Steam
2016-01
-
2015 Winter Steam Sale List.
2016-01-22.
This was a post I intended to publish somewhere near the beginning of January.
I bought a lot of things in the 2015 Steam Winter sale, but I kept all of my purchases to 7.99 or less, so I consider that a relative success. I even installed some of them. :)
Undertale. 7.99. It didn’t look like my kind of game, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about it.
- Musings
- Steam
2016-04
-
Low Energy Gaming Week in Review.
2016-04-09.
The past couple of weeks have been really trying at work. I’m in the process of training other developers, writing documentation, and frantically trying to tie up loose ends before moving to another project in May. It involves spending pretty much all day every day doing things that I’m not particularly good at, i.e. interacting with people, leading, making decisions, and generally trying to be a role model for everyone who stares at me with big round eyes wondering what to do after I’m gone.
- MMORPG
- Status
- Steam
2016-05
-
Dark Souls III First Playthrough Complete.
2016-05-10.
I finished my first playthrough of Dark Souls III Sunday morning. I think it took around 84 hours and 87 levels, using a Knight build based mainly around strength and vitality. All bosses defeated solo, although I almost cracked and summoned help on the Twin Princes. (After the rather dismal experience I had with the Dancer of Boreal Valley, and when it looked like I might be heading in the same direction with the Twin Princes, I did summon help twice, but both times I died very quickly, which I took as a sign that I should stick with my original plan to get all the bosses solo on the first playthrough.
- RPG
- Single-Player
- Steam
2016-08
-
Doom Impressions.
2016-08-12.
I bought Doom when it was half off on Steam a while back and have been playing it here and there. I’m not quite sure what to make of it.
On the positive side, it’s a beautiful game, and it runs beautifully on my new gaming PC. It’s suitably fast and violent and hard on Ultra Violence. The chainsaw had me giggling like a kid when I found it. (Remember how the world thought the original Doom was over-the-top gruesome?
- Reviews
- Single-Player
- Steam
-
Dark Souls Character Loss.
2016-08-24.
You might be wondering why I’ve been playing WoW and/or LotRO instead of continuing my re-plays and re-re-plays and re-re-re-plays of Dark Souls 1, 2, and 3, the greatest three games in the history of the universe. (Not to be hyperbolic or anything.)
It’s because I setup and moved to a new gaming PC. Guess what? You can’t move your characters from one installation to another with the PC version of Dark Souls 2 and 3.
- Single-Player
- Steam
2016-11
-
Snap Judgment – Novus Inceptio.
2016-11-18.
I should be really excited to play Rift: Starfall Prophecy but to be honest I couldn’t care less about any MMORPG right now. I’m just in one of those moods.
Instead I installed one of the many games on my Steam list that I’ve never tried so that I could bring you another (cue huge reverb and echo) … Snap Judgment! .. judgment .. ment .. nt.
Novus Inceptio is yet another Early Access survival sandbox game.
- Pre-Release
- Single-Player
- Snap Judgment
- Steam
-
Devil Daggers.
2016-11-24.
I saw Devil Daggers on Steam when it first came out and thought, “What an odd-sounding game.” I saw the “Too long, didn’t play” guy on Gamers With Jobs call it “punishingly hard,” and use it as the benchmark for measuring hard games ever since. I put it on my wish list. I laugh at hard games! Ha!
Recently it went on sale and I bought it for $2.99, along with some other stuff I might play some day (including another one of the Batman games-I have them all now but haven’t played any of them yet).
- Single-Player
- Snap Judgment
- Steam
2016-12
-
Morrowinding.
2016-12-20.
I was sick a lot last week, so I’ve spent a lot of time in the world of Bethesda games lately. First it was New Vegas, but I got a little burned out on it so I turned to Morrowind and now I’m totally into that.
Morrowind is enormous. I thought Oblivion and Skyrim were pretty big, but Morrowind seems to dwarf them. (Admittedly part of that could be because the movement speed is so slow it just feels bigger.
- RPG
- Single-Player
- Steam
-
The Prestigious Endgame Viable Awards 2016.
2016-12-22.
It occurred to me that the end of the year is approaching, and it’s time to do one of those year-end posts that bloggers love to do. Unfortunately I kind of hate doing them. It’s a lot of work. You have to actually look things up and think and count and multiply and divide and things like that. That goes against my normal principal of blogging by “just typing words into a text editor.
- MMORPG
- Single-Player
- Steam
2017-01
-
Steam Entertainment Value 2016.
2017-01-02.
Here’s a chart I just made showing all my Steam purchases in 2016. I computed the cost per hour for playing each game, based on the price I paid for the game and the number of hours I played (according to Steam). In this way I came up with a list of games sorted by best entertainment value.
If the cost per hour came out more than the purchase price (such as Bastion which came out to $37/hour), then I capped it at the purchase price.
- Musings
- Steam
2017-02
-
Snap Judgment – Conan Exiles.
2017-02-01.
I wasn’t going to buy Conan Exiles right away, because I could tell from the streams and the early gameplay videos that it wasn’t ready yet, but I bought it anyway because I just didn’t feel like playing FFXIV. $30 isn’t too much to waste on a game, right? Eventually they’ll fix it up into a finished game, surely?
To nobody’s surprise, I should have waited for a sale. Let’s start with the bad stuff.
- Steam
- Survival
2017-08
-
Subnautica.
2017-08-29.
Last night I tried out an early access survival game called Subnautica. I bought it for $9.99 in the last Steam sale.
The premise of this game is unlike other survival games in that you play a big part of it underwater. The game begins with you scrambling into a “rescue pod” while your ship blows up around you. (I assume it’s some kind of spaceship.) The rescue pod lands in a big alien ocean and then it’s your job to survive, while your ship looms in the distance, burning and giving off radiation.
- Pre-Release
- Steam
- Survival
2017-11
-
Snap Judgment – Necropolis (Brutal Edition).
2017-11-03.
Not surprisingly, there was a Steam sale for Halloween, and one of the games that’s been on my wish list for a long time was really cheap: Necropolis. They apparently made some changes from the original launch version and now call it the “Brutal Edition.”
I didn’t want to buy it, because even though it was only $4.49, I didn’t want to send the signal that it was “okay” to release an incomplete buggy game at launch and then fix it later.
- Reviews
- Single-Player
- Steam
2017-12
-
Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition.
2017-12-27.
I allowed myself to buy one game in the Steam Winter Sale, which was Divinity: Original Sin.
Then, a few hours later, I bought the Skyrim Special Edition, because I saw everyone on Twitter talking about it which reminded me that I wanted to buy that too and, hey, what a coincidence, it was on sale.
But this post is about Divinity: Original Sin. It’s an isometric, turn-based strategy RPG which can trace its ancestry back to games like Baldur’s Gate (the earliest example of this kind that I can think).
- Reviews
- RPG
- Steam
2018-03
-
Life is Strange.
2018-03-05.
Steam is having yet another one of those sales, and I saw that a lot of Square Enix games were available cheap. Life is Strange, for example, is available for $5. It’s one of those games that everyone says is fantastic. It also happens that the first episode is available for free, so I thought I’d try it out and see if I wanted to spend the $5 for the entire thing.
- Single-Player
- Steam
2018-04
-
Kingdom Come: Deliverance Completed.
2018-04-09.
I’ve been holding off on writing about Kingdom Come: Deliverance until I was done, but finally, after 86.7 hours according to the save game file, and 108 hours according to ManicTime, between February 20 and this past weekend, April 8, I finished the game.
An interior in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Spectacular scenery and lighting is common. I say “finished,” but what I mean is that I reached the The End screen, the point at which the developers believe your characters’ story has ended.
- Reviews
- RPG
- Steam
2018-06
-
Week End – Steam Flood.
2018-06-09.
News and observations from the past week.
I keep thinking I should write real posts about stuff, but I’m having a hard time finding anything that interests me enough to write more than a few sentences.
Dark Souls Remastered. It bugs me but also amuses me that the featured image I put in these posts doesn't match the title. In The News Star Wars Galaxies creator Raph Koster to release postmortem book on MMORPGs.
- MMORPG
- Steam
2018-07
-
Monthly Recap – June 2018.
2018-07-02.
Games Played It's true, I have a nearly limitless supply of images from Dark Souls to put into my posts. Dark Souls Remastered, 65 hours. It feels like I’ve played a lot more than this, actually. I now know this is beyond the limit of how much I can play a controller game in a month. (I remember once thinking that controller games were easier on my hands than WASD mouse-and-keyboard games, boy was *that* wrong.
- MMORPG
- Single-Player
- Steam
2018-12
-
RimWorld First Impressions.
2018-12-10.
The rest of the world has already played and finished with RimWorld, which I think has been in Early Access for quite some time, but I just started playing it. I happened to see Sean Sands from Gamers With Jobs playing it on their YouTube channel and thought it looked amazing, so I picked it up. I didn’t even wait for a sale, because I wanted to jump into it while I was interested.
- Reviews
- Single-Player
- Steam
-
Endgame Viable Awards 2018.
2018-12-31.
It’s time once against for the prestigious Endgame Viable Awards for 2018.
2017 Awards 2016 Awards 2015 Awards I give out three awards for PC games only: Game of the Year, MMORPG of the Year, and MMORPG Expansion of the Year. In my warped worldview “Game of the Year” sort of implies Steam game of the year (because that’s the only place I buy PC games) and excludes traditional MMORPGs.
- MMORPG
- Single-Player
- Steam
2019-01
-
RimWorld Anecdotes.
2019-01-02.
Raiders tunneling into Ancient Danger. Again, the screenshot looks dumb and meaningless. Just trust me when I say this was a super dramatic, white knuckle, holy crap moment.
People on Twitter are probably sick of hearing about RimWorld by now, but blog readers can enjoy these quips for the first time! Unless you follow me on Twitter, then you’ve probably seen them before. But now you can read more about what I meant with the power of more words!
- Musings
- Single-Player
- Steam
-
Return to Subnautica.
2019-01-14.
Well we’re starting off the week by deciding *not* to post the post I was going to post about why blogging is such work for me right now, because of the reasons I explain in that post, because I just don’t want anyone to know how much work it is, which quickly kills off the era of “2019 is when I post my half-finished drafts even when they’re not done instead of letting them accumulate in Drafts for years on end.
- Musings
- Single-Player
- Steam
2019-07
-
Blaugust Game Schedule.
2019-07-18.
Here is the official list of games I will play for Blaugust, randomized with random.org using atmospheric noise or some such nonsense:
TimeShift The Lord of the Rings: War in the North Antichamber Majesty Gold HD Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 Dead Space 2 World in Conflict Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit NEO Scavenger Vortex: The Gateway KHOLAT Crysis Warhead Game of Thrones Apotheon Penumbra: Requiem The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Alan Wake’s American Nightmare A Story About My Uncle Darksiders II The Bureau: XCOM Declassified Crysis Wars The Age of Decadence Gothic 3 Forsaken Gods Enhanced Edition Crysis 2 Maximum Edition Max Payne 3 Tree of Savior (English Ver.
- Musings
- Steam
- Streaming
-
Steam Backlog Bonanza – Lord of the Rings: War in the North.
2019-07-30.
Is Lord of the Rings still Lord of the Rings even when it’s not Lord of the Rings? That is the question I set out to answer when looking at Lord of the Rings: War in the North, from 2011. Actually, it was just the next game on my Steam backlog list. I paid $5 for it in a Steam sale some time back, and yesterday I looked at it for the first time.
- Reviews
- RPG
- Steam
- Streaming
-
Steam Backlog Bonanza – Antichamber.
2019-07-31.
Yesterday I tried a game called Antichamber from my Steam backlog. I played for an hour and a half, an almost unprecedented marathon for me in a first look at a game. It’s an indie game that I (apparently, because of course I have no memory of this) got for $5 in 2013, and it took me six years to actually play it.
It's really, really hard to find a representative screenshot for this game.
- Snap Judgment
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
2019-08
-
Steam Backlog Bonanza – Majesty Gold HD [Blaugust 1].
2019-08-01.
It’s possible that I’ve played Majesty before, according to Steam, but I don’t remember it at all. From the description it sounded like it would be in the same vein as Dwarf Fortress or RimWorld, both games I’ve enjoyed, but it was a little bit different. Yesterday was this game’s (possibly second?) chance to impress me, according to the schedule.
The map where you select the "quest" to embark upon.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Steam Backlog Bonanza – Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 [Blaugust 2].
2019-08-02.
I was looking forward to seeing this real-time strategy game from 2008 for the first time, and now that I have, I’m not even sure what to say about it. This might be the exact point in time when the games industry stopped and said, “Wait, I think we might have gone a little too far here.” Or should have said that, at least.
First, let’s talk about the game part of the game.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Steam Backlog Bonanza – Dead Space 2 [Blaugust 3].
2019-08-03.
I bought both Dead Space 1 and 2 in a Steam winter sale in 2011 for $5 each (that was back in the halcyon days when Steam sales were always 85%-off sales, not the trolly 10%-off sales they are today). I played seven hours of Dead Space 1 according to Steam. I didn’t hate it, but I obviously never finished it.
Yesterday on the Backlog Bonanza, it was finally time to take a look at the sequel, Dead Space 2.
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Hitman: Absolution – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 4].
2019-08-04.
Inside-Baseball Note Of Possible Worth To New Bloggers during Blaugust: I forgot you’re supposed to put the more important and unique search keywords at the beginning of a blog post’s title, and thus have I changed the format for my titles and introduced an inconsistency into my Blaugust posts. (At least, that was the last SEO advice I remember reading. It changes at least once a year.)
Yesterday, Hitman: Absolution came up on the Big Board for the last day of the first week of my Blaugust Steam Backlog Bonanza.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Brütal Legend – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 5].
2019-08-05.
For undoubtedly many of the same reasons as the rest of the United States, I wasn’t in a very good mood yesterday, so I called an audible and substituted Brütal Legend instead of the game I *planned* to play. I remember enjoying a demo of Brütal Legend on the PS3 years ago, so when I saw a PC version in a Steam sale for $5 in 2013 I had to get it.
- Music
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 6].
2019-08-06.
I bought 2010’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit for $8 in a Winter sale in 2014, and yesterday I installed and played it for the first time. I believe this was the ninth game in the Backlog Bonanza so far, with a depressingly huge list of games left to get through.
Every frame of every race looks exactly like this.
I’ve always liked racing games. They’re simpler games from a simpler time.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
NEO Scavenger – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 7].
2019-08-07.
Yesterday I played NEO Scavenger for the 10th day of the Steam Backlog Death March I mean Bonanza. It was released in 2014, and I bought it in 2016 for $5. (Coincidentally it’s actually on sale today for less than that.)
Waking up from cryosleep.
I goofed with this one. I have, in fact, played it before. But for some reason, Steam didn’t think I had. I know I played it because I found a video I recorded of it in 2016.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Survival
- Videos
-
Vortex: The Gateway – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 8].
2019-08-08.
Yesterday on the Steam Backlog Bonanza, I tried out a survival game from 2016 called Vortex: The Gateway which I got for $9 in a sale. (I think it’s probably a universal constant that all of the games in everyone’s backlog are games from a sale.)
Surviving on an alien planet that looks like a nice camping trip.
I only played for about 40 minutes because of a looming thunderstorm, but I tried the two different game modes.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Kholat – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 9].
2019-08-09.
Yesterday I played a game called Kholat for the 12th day of the Steam Backlog Bonanza, which I got in 2016 for about $9. For some reason, most of the literature puts it in all caps so it’s KHOLAT! Not just Kholat. KHOLAT!!! One of the main attractions is Sean Bean voicing some of the narration.
It’s a really interesting game, in a certain kind of way. It’s basically a walking simulator at its heart, but it’s a very intense walking simulator.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 10].
2019-08-10.
Back in 2013 I bought Shadow Warrior for $10, and it came with a free “mini-game” called Viscera Cleanup Detail: Shadow Warrior. That’s what came up on the schedule for yesterday’s stream, so I finally tried it out.
I had heard about Viscera Cleanup Detail before but I don’t own it. It’s a physics game where you take on the role of a janitor who “cleans up” after the heroic gamer has gone through and slaughtered all the bad guys, exploding them into gibs or whatever.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Game Of Thrones – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 11].
2019-08-11.
Game Of Thrones, the game from 2012, not to be confused with all of the other Game Of Thrones games, was next on my Steam Backlog Bonanza. I bought it in 2013 in a $10 bundle with … I don’t even know what else. I played it for the first time yesterday.
This is not a Nazgul, but in fact the character that you play at the beginning.
It’s actually surprising that this game has been sitting here for almost six years.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Apotheon – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 12].
2019-08-12.
Yesterday for the 15th day of the Steam Backlog Bonanza I played a game called Apotheon, which I got in 2016 for $3.74. Hard to believe I’m into a third week of this. Anyway, I had been looking forward to this one because I knew it was a visually unusual game.
I don’t normally like side-scrollers. The last one I remember enjoying was Pitfall on an Atari 2600. Actually I can’t think of any other side-scrollers I’ve played on any platform since then.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Penumba: Requiem – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 13].
2019-08-13.
The Steam Backlog Bonanza marches on with a look at Penumbra: Requiem (and Black Plague). Penumbra came out in 2009 but I couldn’t find any records of when I bought it, so it must have been a long time ago. I had played Black Plague for about a half hour before, but yesterday was the first time I looked at Requiem.
An obelisk puzzle in Penumbra: Requiem.
Penumbra: Requiem is actually an “expansion” for Black Plague.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Geometry Wars 3 – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 14].
2019-08-14.
Yesterday’s new game for the Steam Backlog Bonanza was Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved. I think it’s an extended edition of the “Dimensions” release. It’s a pure arcade action game, of the kind you might find in an old-fashioned upright arcade cabinet.
It's very difficult to get any sense of what the game is like from a still image.
I don’t know why I bought this game, but it was only $1.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Alan Wake’s American Nightmare – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 15].
2019-08-15.
For the halfway point of Blaugust, more-or-less, I played Alan Wake’s American Nightmare from my Steam backlog. I got it, along with Alan Wake, for $4 right before it was removed from Steam.
Is it live or is it Memorex?
The first game, Alan Wake, did not qualify for my Steam Backlog Bonanza because, according to Steam, I’ve played it for precisely one minute. I do not remember that minute. I’ve read numerous reports that Alan Wake was a great game, a must-buy game, particularly when it was about to be removed, but I haven’t played it, and apparently something about it made me recoil away from it.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
A Story About My Uncle – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 16].
2019-08-16.
The big wheel of life turned and landed on a game from my Steam backlog called A Story About My Uncle*. I got it in a 2016 sale for $2 and tried it for the first time yesterday. (It turns out that 2016 was the final year that I indiscriminately bought games on Steam.)
It’s getting really hard to think of a different opening sentence and paragraph for each one of these things.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Darksiders II – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 17].
2019-08-17.
Death knocked at the door yesterday, and I answered with a game called Darksiders II. Get it? Because Death is the protagonist in Darksiders II? Anyway, it was the 20th day in a row of the Steam Backlog Bonanza, and one of the most expensive games in the list so far. I got Darksiders II for $10 in 2013, and it’s taken six years to install and play the game.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 18].
2019-08-18.
I was minding my own business when aliens descended from the sky, firing lasers from their circular flying saucers. Everything around me exploded. Otherworldly creatures crept out of the smoke and fire, approaching me like simians on all fours. Anyway the next game on the Steam Backlog Bonanza is The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. I bought it in a 2013 Steam sale for $4.
Just an average green glowing energy field in a federal building.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 19].
2019-08-19.
I found myself wandering a wasteland of wrecked tanker ships when a radiation storm blocked out the sun. In other words, I played S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat yesterday for the 22nd day of the Steam Backlog Bonanza. It’s one of those Eastern European shooters from 2010. I couldn’t find any record of when or how much I paid for it, which suggests I probably bought it soon after 2010 and it’s been sitting in my Steam backlog unplayed for nearly nine years.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
The Age of Decadence – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 20].
2019-08-20.
For the 23rd day of the Steam Backlog Bonanza, I played an indie game called The Age of Decadence, which I got in the 2016 Winter sale for $7.50. I think I mentioned this before, but the Winter sale of 2016 was the last time that I splurged on Steam games just because they were on sale.
The outdoor isometric view, which is actually not seen very much.
I don’t remember why I bought this game.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods (Enhanced Edition) – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 21].
2019-08-21.
I was in a funk yesterday so it would have been a great day to discover a fun new game. Unfortunately, Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods (Enhanced Edition) was up next on the Steam Backlog Bonanza. I got it as part of a “Gothic Complete Pack” for $7.50.
Now I didn’t realize this until afterward, but Forsaken Gods is actually an expansion or addon to the base game of Gothic 3. Steam tells me I’ve played the base game of Gothic 3 for 12 minutes, so technically I can’t say that I haven’t played it.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Crysis 2 Maximum Edition – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 22].
2019-08-22.
Ladies and gentlemen, there is nothing up my sleeve, there are no wires or electronic devices of any kind. That’s because I played Crysis 2 Maximum Edition yesterday for the 25th day of the Steam Backlog Bonanza. And I’ve been watching episodes of Penn & Teller’s Fool Us as well.
The mean streets of New York, sometime in the near-future.
I bought Crysis 2 for $10 back in 2013. I already had Crysis 1, but I only played it for about 4 hours.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Max Payne 3 – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 23].
2019-08-23.
It was a dark and stormy night, and noir was in the air when I played Max Payne 3 for the 26th day of the Steam Backlog Bonanza. I got it in 2013, just a year after it’s release, for $4. In those days, the sales were sales. Now you’re lucky to get $4 off in a sale.
Anyway, I was looking forward to playing this particular game. I don’t precisely remember why I bought it-probably because it was a AAA title for $4, which was reason enough in 2013.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Tree of Savior – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 24].
2019-08-24.
Yesterday for the Steam Backlog Bonanza I tried out an MMORPG called Tree of Savior. It launched in 2016, but I’m not entirely sure how it got onto my list. It’s free-to-play on Steam, so I never actually “bought” it, so it’s technically not in my backlog. I might have placed it in there manually because I wanted to try it, but I don’t remember. I made the game list weeks ago.
- MMORPG
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Titan Souls – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 25].
2019-08-25.
Speaking of Souls-like games, yesterday on the Steam Backlog Bonanza, I played a game that is frequently described as Souls-like: Titan Souls, from 2015. I got it in that infamous Winter 2016 sale, what turned out to be the last hurrah of Steam sales, for a whopping $3.74. I don’t remember why, except that I probably had a vague memory of seeing it described as a game that fans of Dark Souls would like.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Enclave – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 26].
2019-08-26.
Yesterday an odd game called Enclave appeared on the Steam Backlog Bonanza. I had never heard of it before. It’s an action-ish RPG which I bought in 2016 for $1.24.
This screenshot looks much better than the game does.
According to Steam, it was released in 2013. I quickly discovered, through simple observations, that the game did not look particularly advanced for a 2013 game. I’ve since learned that it was actually released in 2002, and re-released on Steam in 2013.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 27].
2019-08-27.
Yesterday I played the second Tolkien property game in my Steam Backlog Bonanza: Middle-earth: Shadows of Mordor. It came out in 2014, I bought it in 2016 for $7.50, one of the more expensive titles on this list.
First the good news: The story of this game starts out fantastic, one of the best I’ve seen. It began with yet another “this is the epic story of the entire history of Middle-earth” prologue and I started to roll my eyes.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Never Alone – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 28].
2019-08-28.
Yesterday for the Steam Backlog Bonanza, I played a game called Never Alone. It was released in 2014, but I couldn’t find any record of when I bought it or for how much. This is the most interesting game in the list so far.
I had been looking forward to this one, and dreading it at the same time. I knew it was a game that involved a story with an animal companion (a fox, in this case).
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Remember Me – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 29].
2019-08-29.
Two great games in a row! Yesterday I played a cyberpunk action game called Remember Me for the Steam Backlog Bonanza. I got it in the 2015 Winter sale for $6.
I really enjoyed it. I liked it so much I lost track of time, and played for nearly two hours. It’s an “action movie” kind of a game, by which I mean it has a whole lot of cut scenes and voice acting and storytelling in between the gameplay.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
Mount & Blade: Warband – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 30].
2019-08-30.
The game of the day was Mount & Blade: Warband for the Steam Backlog Bonanza. I got it in 2010 Winter sale, but I can’t find any record of how much I paid for it. I probably got it in a bundle with both Mount & Blade and Warband.
Fighting bandits from horseback.
Warband is an “old” game. You can always tell an “old” game because they are stretched out horizontally.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
-
BioShock 2 Remastered – Steam Backlog Bonanza [Blaugust 31].
2019-08-31.
Since my production pipeline is offset by a day, this should be my 31st and last “official” Blaugust post. However I’m still going to play at least one last game today on the 31st as well, which will get a blog post tomorrow.
Yesterday for the 34th day of the Steam Backlog Bonanza, I returned to Rapture with BioShock 2 Remastered. This is a game I’ve owned since 2010, but never played until now.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
2019-09
-
Serious Sam Fusion 2017 (Beta) – Steam Backlog Bonanza.
2019-09-01.
For what will probably be the last game in the Steam Backlog Bonanza, the 35th one on the list, I played a shooter called Serious Sam Fusion 2017 (beta). I have no idea how I got this game. I have a bunch of Serious Sam games, but I don’t remember buying any of them, and since Blaugust is over now I don’t particularly feel like doing the work to look it up.
- Reviews
- Steam
- Streaming
- Videos
2019-10
-
Max Payne 3 Completed.
2019-10-16.
Back during my Steam Backlog Bonanza, which now seems so long ago that I can barely even remember it, I identified only a few games that I definitely wanted to return to later. For the record, those games were, in the order I encountered them: Life is Feudal, Kholat, Age of Decadence, and Max Payne 3.
Max Payne 3 wins the award for most character costume changes in one game.
- RPG
- Steam
-
Scary Game Experiment.
2019-10-28.
I don’t get into Halloween much at all, but this year I thought I would break with tradition and try to find a scary game to play. You know, one of those kinds of games that makes the streamers whimper and cry and scream and jump, for the lulz and the clicks. I’m not especially prone to being scared by a game, and I’ve played a number of horror games before that I didn’t find particularly scary, but I wondered if I could find one out there.
- Reviews
- Steam
2019-11
-
Generation Zero.
2019-11-04.
Over the weekend, I noticed Steam was giving away a free trial of this game called Generation Zero, which I’d never heard of before. So I thought I’d try it. I kind of miss those Halcyon days of the Steam Backlog Bonanza, when I got to play a brand new game every day.
I didn’t even know what this game was, to be honest. It sounded like a shooter. But it said it was “set in Sweden,” which is something I’ve certainly never seen before in a game.
- Snap Judgment
- Steam
2019-12
-
Outward.
2019-12-02.
I picked up a game called Outward on sale for $20 a while back. It looked like a fun single-player third-person RPG, and the emphasis on starting weak and earning your rewards appealed to me.
My jaunty adventurer with a big permanent smile on his face.
I almost immediately regretted my purchase. The voice acting isn’t very good, and they do that thing I really hate where they only speak the first line, leaving you to read the rest of it.
- Reviews
- RPG
- Steam
2020-05
-
Doki Doki Literature Club.
2020-05-08.
I’ll start with non-spoilery stuff.
I saw some folks talking about Doki Doki Literature Club on the Blaugust Discord (raving about it, one might say), and I noticed it was free on Steam, so I downloaded it to try it out. I’m pretty sure I’ve heard people talking favorably about it in the past as well, though I never understood why.
It’s a really, really slow burn, but I think it’s probably worth it in the end.
- Reviews
- Steam
2020-06
-
Assassin’s Creed Franchise, Part 1 – I, II, and III.
2020-06-15.
I’m going to attempt to write a blog post now. I don’t really want to, but I feel like I should at least try to get one post out about something every month. But honestly, who gives a crap about blogging right now? Not me, that’s who.
Anyway, after I reached a stopping point with No Man’s Sky, I turned to the Assassin’s Creed franchise. I didn’t really plan to, but after I saw the reveal trailer for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, I thought, “Hey I want to replay that first Assassin’s Creed game and get a good recording of it.
- Reviews
- RPG
- Steam
-
Assassin’s Creed Franchise, Part 2 – Liberation HD.
2020-06-16.
Continuing my epic playthrough of the Assassin’s Creed franchise in my Steam backlog, so that I can be ready to … not buy Valhalla at launch and wait for a Steam sale some time in the future, like I do with every iteration of Assassin’s Creed. These blog posts are largely here to archive and expand on all the tweets I wrote.
(To be perfectly honest, this specific blog post is mainly here to test whether or not Tweetdeck is going to show an image on the automated tweet that Jetpack is going to create for this post.
- Reviews
- RPG
- Steam
-
Assassin’s Creed Franchise, Part 3 – Black Flag.
2020-06-18.
Continuing my epic playthrough of all of the Assassin’s Creed games in my Steam backlog in order, and archiving the tweets I wrote about them. Last time it was Liberation HD. This time it’s the pirate game that I knew I wasn’t going to like, and the main reason I stopped playing Assassin’s Creed games in the first place.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (2013), May 28 Get used to this sight.
- Reviews
- RPG
- Steam
-
Assassin’s Creed Franchise, Part 4 – Rogue.
2020-06-20.
Continuing my epic playthrough of all of the Assassin’s Creed games in my Steam backlog in order, and archiving the tweets I wrote about them. Last time it was Black Flag, next is the one that made everyone step back and say, “You know, maybe we don’t actually need a new Assassin’s Creed game every year.”
Assassin’s Creed Rogue, June 2 Shay Cormac, our completely level-headed character for this game, who will not at any point make any rash decisions whatsoever.
- Reviews
- RPG
- Steam
2021-01
-
Endgame Viable 2020 Awards.
2021-01-11.
I only bought one new game in 2020 so it will be very easy to pick my own personal Game of the Year for 2020. But I also talk about a few other noteworthy games I played during the year.
- Consoles
- Roundup
- Steam