My
backloggery.
Bought so far in 2012: 2
Beaten so far in 2012: 7
Score: +5
Purchased in 2012
Kingdoms of Amalur - Reckoning: Impulse bought this for ~$45 on launch day. I've enjoyed it but am disappointed at how broken it is in terms of difficulty. I restarted after about 20 hours - this time making a hybrid build to keep it more interesting and completely forgoing all crafting. Decided I'm going to stop playing for awhile to see they achieve with dlc and patches and also see what the community achieves with mods.
Mass Efffect 3: Was going to wait but was able to get it for $30 so figured it was worth it. Going to play ME1 and 2 again beforehand though, so maybe not such a good idea. Probably by the time I get around to it it will be $10 or something.
Beaten:
Psychonauts: A really wonderful game. It was funny, played well, and had an enjoyable story. But where the game really shined was in the incredibly creative level design. They were artistically and thematically brilliant in addition to being decent platforming levels. And it has such incredible variety, no two levels are anything alike. It's a great game. It also plays perfectly with a gamepad on the PC and looks gorgeous at 1080p.
LA Noire - The Complete Edition: Fun game. Had some real problems though. The dialogue system was far too simplistic for the depth they were going for, Phelps would regularly refer to undiscovered suspects and clues in conversations which really broke immersion, and while the story is better than Heavy Rains, it's still pretty bad. Looked great on PC, ran okay (capped at 30fps, but most of the game stayed at 30fps with occasional drops early on in some buildings), and I still enjoyed the Noire Detective story.
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords: I've started this game probably 10 times but always got stuck on the two headed troll and gave up. Finally started playing it again as my distraction game and got past the troll and got sucked into the game for another 30 hours or so. Really great game, I wished they had released the DLC on PC.
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and the Damned:I enjoyed this game a lot more than I enjoyed GTAIV. Part of the difference is that this game is a lot shorter. I thought GTAIV was WAY too long for the variety (or lack thereof) in the missions. The other factor is that I played this on PC. Man, Grand Theft Auto games should only ever be played on PC. Even with a fairly dated machine (C2D, 5870) I was still playing at ~30fps at 1080p with every setting either at or higher than console. And having mouse aim really makes the combat a lot more fun (although a bit easier.) The city just seems so much more alive with higher resolution and higher draw distance. I kind of want to wait until after I upgrade my processor (probably more than a year away) to play Ballad of Gay Tony just to see how awesome this game would be with a good processor.
Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos: Finally beat the game. I actually had a lot of fun with it. I did start stalling out in the Night Elf campaign because the tactics were getting so easy. The final mission was pretty great though, having to actually mount a defense while continuously building new units. I guess this is a smidgeon of what real
RTS gameplay is like. Going to take a break for awhile before moving on to Frozen Throne, RTS is probably my least favorite genre so don't want to overdo it. My real only complaint is that the basic tactics for 90% of the matches are turtle till fully upgraded, build as many units as you can, attack. And the primary source of variety was the dungeon roaming, which I thought was much inferior to DoW2. I've never been a big fan of the dungeon crawl in RTS games.
Bastion: A really great game. Beat it in about 8 hours. While the combat is certainly very simplistic, the variety of weapons, powers, and enemies kept it interesting for me. The ability to control your own difficulty with the shrines was also very welcome. Ended right when it should have, if it had gone on for a few more hours it would have overstayed its welcome. Stunningly beautiful music and artwork. And the narrator really helped set the tone. Someday maybe I’ll play it again in new-game plus mode.
Sam and Max 204 - Chariots of the Dogs: Compared to some of the better episodes this one was rather mediocre, but it was still a good time. The funniest jokes were at the very beginning when first visiting the different locations, by the end it was barely chuckle worthy. Hope the next episode finishes the season in style.
Cleared from Backlog (meaning I played them and decided I don't want to play them anymore but didn't beat them)
Dungeons of Dredmore: Really enjoyed this game, is also an excellent game to play while watching mindless tv with the wife.
Puzzle Quest 2: Another game to play while watching mindless TV. It's just too easy though, and the new Diablo style dungeon design is really bad. Definitely a major disappointment following the original. Did a few cool ideas like weapon attacks, new spell types, and upgrading weapons.
Currently Playing:
Mass Effect: I’ve beaten this game twice before and after this I’ll be playing ME2 to finally end the trilogy with ME3. So it’s going to be awhile before I clear anymore games from the backlog!