Battle of the Backlog

[Legend]

I've been waiting for the right time to play Parallax. For over 5 years I have thought about when it'd be best to study it and compare the game with Hapax.

Today was finally the day, and this was not the game I expected!

lol I thought it'd be like Antichamber a bit but no. It's literally just separate puzzle levels with absolutely nothing tying them together. Not at all my thing.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150730050353/http://killscreendaily.com/articles/parallax-got-puzzles/

[kitler53]

you should play hob. 

[Legend]

you should play hob.

I watched a few videos about it back when it released. Would be fun to play it.

Right now I'm focused on first person puzzleish games though. Relicta is free on Epic today so I might play that next. Or the Forgotten City.

[Legend]

I played Myst 3. Was ok. Not as good as riven but not bad. Bit of a dumb story.

edt: rewatching some riven gameplay. It is not even close to the quality of riven.

[the-pi-guy]

Not technically a backlog yet, but lots of big franchises where I would think it'd be fun to play through all of them:

Super Mario: multiple platforms
Legend of Zelda: multiple platforms
Metroid: multiple platforms
Final Fantasy: multiple platforms
Metal Gear Solid: multiple platforms
Resident Evil: Currently available on PS4
Borderlands: Currently available on PS4
Killzone: requires PS3
Resistance: not available
Elder Scrolls: only on PC
Half Life: only on PC
Portal: only on PC
Red Dead?: multiple platforms
Dragon Age: multiple platforms
Halo: on PC or XSX
Gears: on PC or XSX
Watch Dogs:

Title	Length for main game	Platform Notes	Entries
Super Mario	5-15	Switch: 64, Sunshine, Galaxy 1, Odyssey Switch: NSMBU	Super Mario Bros 1-3 + lost levels Super Mario Land 1,2 Super Mario World 1,2 New Super Mario Bros (Wii, 2, U) Super Mario 64 Super Mario Sunshine Super Mario Galaxy 1,2 Super Mario Odyssey
Legend of Zelda	15-50 hours	Primarily on Switch + Online	The Legend of Zelda Zelda 2 Link to the Past Ocarina of Time Link's Awakening Majora's Mask Wind Waker Twilight Princess Skyward Sword Breath of the Wild
Metroid	6-15
Final Fantasy	15-50 hours	PC: 1-6,13 PS5 7-12, 15	Final Fantasy I-XV (Excluding XI, XIV)
Metal Gear Solid	5 - 50 hours	PS3: 1-4   PS5: 5	Metal Gear 1,2 Metal Gear Solid 1-5
Resident Evil	5 - 12 hours	PS5: 1-8	Resident Evil 1-8
Borderlands	20 - 30	PS5: 1-3, Pre	Borderlands 1-3, Pre
Killzone	7-10	PS3: 1-3 PS5: Shadowfall	Killzone 1-3, Shadowfall
Resistance	8-12	PS3: 1-3	Resistance 1-3
Elder Scrolls	20-50	PC: 1,2 XSX: 3-4 PS5: 5	Elder Scrolls 1-5
Half Life	3-13	PC: all	Half-life 1,2, Episode 1,2; Alyx
Portal	3-9	PC: all	Portal 1,2
Red Dead	18-50	PS3: 1 PS5: 2	Red Dead Redemption 1-2
Dragon Age	26-50	PC: Origins, II PS5: Inquisition, Dreadfall	Dragon Age Origins Dragon Age II Dragon Age Inquisition Dragon Age Dreadwolf
Halo	6-11	XSX: 1-5, infinite	Halo 1-5, Infinite
Gears	9-11	XSX: 1-5	Gears 1-5
Watch Dogs	18-20	PS5: 1-2, Legion	Watch Dogs 1-2, Legion

[the-pi-guy]

Cuurent plan:
Replay GoW
Ragnarok
Replay Uncharted
Resident Evil (as many as I'm willing to play.)

[Legend]

Cuurent plan:
Replay GoW
Ragnarok
Replay Uncharted
Resident Evil (as many as I'm willing to play.)

Why uncharted?

[the-pi-guy]

Why uncharted?

Because it's been a while since I've played most of them.

Like 3+ years.

[the-pi-guy]

Uncharted 2 and Uncharted 4 in particular are 2 of my favorite games ever.

I played U2 like 15 times in the 4 years after it came out, and have only played it once or twice after.

Never played the remasters. Been wanting to play them again for a while.

[kitler53]

dang.   i like the game too but i can't imagine playing any game that many times.  i have soo many new games i've never played in my backlog that i kind of feel guilty playing any game even just a 2nd time.   for me pretty much just ratchet and clank games get a replay.

[SWORDF1SH]

Uncharted 2 and Uncharted 4 in particular are 2 of my favorite games ever.

I played U2 like 15 times in the 4 years after it came out, and have only played it once or twice after.

Never played the remasters. Been wanting to play them again for a while.

I enjoy plating the uncharted games. Can play for hours finding the hidden treasures.

[the-pi-guy]

dang.   i like the game too but i can't imagine playing any game that many times.  i have soo many new games i've never played in my backlog that i kind of feel guilty playing any game even just a 2nd time.   for me pretty much just ratchet and clank games get a replay.

This was mostly when I was a high schooler, so I had more time than I had money/games.

[kitler53]

This was mostly when I was a high schooler, so I had more time than I had money/games.

well that makes sense then.  

HS was the only period where I didn't game.  I skipped the N64 until it was retro. 

[Legend]

I need to redo my op at some point. Tons of games have been added since then and tons I'll realistically never play.

But today I played Quern. Spiritual successor to Myst but not that good imo.

First off it had horrible performance. For a 2016 indie game I'd expect it to run flawlessly on my rig but nope. Had to use a scaled resolution, but every time the game saved the graphics were reset. I got pretty fast at popping open the settings and putting the scale back. Was annoying but slightly fun since the game saved before most animations. Made them more nostalgic at 20fps.

The puzzles were often really bad. Half were incredibly obtuse and lacked any form of logic or goal. Literally the only way to solve them is to just exhaust every possibility until the correct thing happens. I ended up using online hints a few times because it felt like a waste of time. A third of the puzzles were standard logic ones you've seen before, like simon says. Not too interesting but they were enjoyable. Just a few puzzles were great/solid imo. They involved logic and creative solutions.

Story was minimal but unlike Myst it didn't feel deep. There was just one "age" and the moral dilemma in the game was really simple. By the end I disliked everyone. I was also frustrated with how artificial everything is. They lampshade this a bit and make it part of the story, but it just makes the lack of agency worse. For example items in my inventory would randomly disappear because the plot decided I was done with them.

5/10, just a very average puzzle game. On PC and Xbox.

[Legend]

I started playing Immortals Fenix Rising.

Shocked at how good it is compared to my expectations. I think the world and gameplay will get boring after dozens of hours but it has a unique flair I was not expecting.