I'm not specifically a big brain person but all the other people responding more in depth into this are pretty true. You either like something or you don't like something. It doesn't matter what the general consensus of Metacritic or Steam tells you.

It seems a lot of people are talking about reviews here so I'll chime in on that. There's some games I'm just too afraid to even touch right now because I feel I'd just be extremely disappointed like I have in the past. Seriously, if I see something on Steam that has a 95% or more (Overwhelmingly Positive) rating, I'm going to stick close to my chest to see if I like the game personally, but many times it's not been the case. As somebody who until recently has played Indie/Boomer Shooters almost exclusively, I cannot tell you how many games I didn't like in that genre. And yes, there's not a lot of middle ground when everyone agrees on something and sometimes I look at these reviews and as people said, they've only said one sentence, a meme or trash talk. I've come to let go of bias in terms of playing something especially whether the game is by a publisher or developer people don't like or if it's something I didn't like, but it's hard to do that sometimes when it feels with so much content that's on the internet you've been trained to think in a more cynical way (Example: My negative feelings about Microids). I like to think positively about things, but it's so easy for the internet and game reviews to get you down.

My advice for this whole underrated/overrated thing, you like a game or you don't and you shouldn't feel bad for feeling this way about things. I'm a person who plays Fallout 76 with my friend on weekend nights sometimes, I have a really awesome time with that game and if I only listened to the overall reception and stuck with that I would have 1: Never given it a chance and 2: I would have been being dishonest with how I feel about it. And I've done this with MANY games. Fortnite is one of my favorite multiplayer games now ever since I gave it a try because it's so casual and not extremely competitive compared to other games. So, I'm mostly with everyone else who is diving deeper into the discussion, but sometimes it can be disheartening to want to play something but you feel pressured not to play it because of what the popular reception might be. I've certainly felt this and I really tried to stay away from that crap when going into a game. Give things a shot and see if you like them.

Daily Challenge - 2025-02-22
Score: 237 / 300
🟦🟦🟦 🟦 = 76 | P | Final Fantasy VIII
🟦🟦🟪 🟦 = 86 | R | Quantum Break
🟦🟩🟦 🟪 = 75 | S | Metroid: Samus Returns

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

I also hate retiring games, so I feel your pain. Our sanity and fun factor is more important when it comes to video games though. Good luck with the remaining Tomb Raider games!

From now on I'm going to start making reviews for Fortnite seasons as well, so I can better form my opinion on individual seasons. I'll start with my review after which I'll provide some of the stats I tracked during that season.

February 16th - Fortnite: Ch6 S1 - 71h - 7/10 - Reached level 201

Here's my review:

Pros:
Starting with the season's battle pass, there were two skins I liked which I used a decent amount. Those two are Shadow Blade Hope and Night Rose. I usually stick to my 5 main skins, so when I use another skin, that means it's pretty good. Night Rose's music pack isn't half bad either.

I don't usually have too strong opinions on a season's gameplay, since I'm fine with pretty much all weapons and game mechanics. Nonetheless, this season did have one unique and interesting item. The Shadow Oni mask, which lets you teleport. I love cool concepts like that and I didn't expect something like that to be added to Fortnite. The boons were a pretty neat new mechanic, allowing you to gain new abilities throughout a match, which provides another mid-match objective to focus on, like the broadcast towers. The unvaults throughout the season like the kinetic blade and lock on pistol fit the season theme nicely. Unvaults in general also kept the loot pool fresh, which prevented it from getting boring and stale.

The map for the chapter has a great amount of variety from the start, with multiple biomes and even a unique design with mountains in the middle. There's also a bunch of neat small aspects like the tunnels going through the mountains and the vault at Nightshift Forest which you can only open by doing a quest for Bushranger. The map changes this season have been better than they have been in a while, with bigger and more numerous changes. For the Christmas event, there was extra snow added to the map and even a mini-event. The Godzilla collab had Shining Span get destroyed and then repaired afterwards. Most unexpectedly of all, a brand new mid-season POI was added. I hope Epic Games keeps up this level of map changes.

The story this season was a little slow throughout the middle with not much happening, like most seasons these days. But it did have some good aspects like tying it together with the previous live event and keeping old characters relevant, while still setting up new mysteries. The best part of the story, however, is easily the mini-event and its aftermath. At this point they can hardly be called mini-events, because it was a whole cinematic battle between Daigo and Shogun X. What I especially enjoyed were the little touches after the event, like Jade foretelling how the season transition will happen to S2 in a way that makes complete sense, instead of it happening out of nowhere, like it sometimes seems. Another detail was Shogun X being replaced by another demon since he got defeated in the event as well as Night Rose no longer being a boss because she was freed from Shogun X's control. These are the little details that didn't have to be added, but make the world feel so much more alive. The story also sets up a potentially great overarching villain with the dark presence in the spirit realm remaining and in control of the zero point shard. I hope this storyline stays throughout the whole chapter since Fortnite has had issues in the past with one-off villains.

Neutral:
Despite there being two skins in the battle pass I enjoyed, the remaining skins were mediocre. I'm not a fan of collabs in the battle pass in the slightest either, especially when they affect gameplay. Although in this case, I will admit that attacking a giant Godzilla in a match is pretty cool and unique, so I can't fault it too much.

Cons:
What I wasn't a fan of was the removal of most Zero Build tournaments. I always do the ranked cups each season for the extra glider, but this season I had to do them in builds, which I dislike much more due to how competitive it is. The only good aspect that came out of this is that I found out that the ranked gliders take your highest rank from any mode, even Rocket Racing, which means I won't have to grind ranks in builds for the ranked cups.

Stats:
Ok, now let's get into my stats for this season, starting with my most used skins. Sylvie is at the top because she's my main, but I also used Shadow Blade Hope a decent amount. The standout new skin though is Hatsune Miku with fantastic hair physics, which is helped by having the longest hair in the game. (Before Cassidy Quinn surprisingly dethroned her in Ch6 S2.) She was so good that she managed to join my exclusive club of main skins, which is currently only at 5.


For most POIs, my favourite is probably Canyon Crossing although Masked Meadows had a great underground tunnel system.


Overall I played about an equal amount of matches of BR and RR. Although not equal by hours spent, because RR matches are much shorter. I do wish RR gets revived at some point, but currently, it's still pretty much dead in the water.


Here are some overall stats for BR this season. Not the best win ratio, but I'm not all that competitive, so I don't care that much. I got my first win early enough, so that's all that matters.


Excited to see how Epic does comparatively in Ch6 S2. Hopefully, they can keep the good aspects from this season going.

Daily Challenge - 2025-02-21
Score: 270 / 300
🟪🟦🟪 🟦 = 90 | R | Axiom Verge
🟦🟪🟦 🟦 = 84 | P | Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition
🟪🟪🟪 🟦 = 96 | S | The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

I've never posted here before but I've played this game every day for a few months and this is by far my best game.

Wow congrats! My current highest score is 265

Post 68 - February 21st, 2025
Retirement: Tomb Raider: The Last Revalation (PC via TR4-6 Remastered, 1999)

This is the 2nd time I'm retiring this game, though this time it's for different reasons as I made it about 2/3 of the way through the game, and this retirement is permanent unless they make a full blown remake of the game. Tomb Raider 4 starts out great, but it slowly devolves to the point where it's borderline unplayable, I could not bring myself to finish it. I'll write a review even though this is a retirement.

Review
My first few hours with Tomb Raider 4 were actually very enjoyable, the remake is very nicely done aside from the lighting which is way too dark. I went into this with a pretty fresh mind, it had been a number of months since I played the original trilogy. I actually enjoyed the tutorial level. The combat is still terrible but that's just classic Tomb Raider for you, and the combat honestly isn't frequent enough to be overly annoying, so it wasn't an issue for a lot of the game. I had fun with Seth's Tomb, the Burial Chamber had some fun puzzles, and the Valley of Kings is alright, and the Tomb of Semerkhet is pretty good. Some of the level sequence triggers are in very odd places and are annoying to find though. I like the return of vehicles, they were very fun in the 3rd game and I appreciate them in 4 as well. The story is mildly interesting to follow with Von Croy being the main villain, and the very good and strong focus on Egyptian stuff. The destructible pots and crates are very nice and provide a good supply of ammo and health packs and everything. Tomb Raider 4 rewards exploration pretty well a lot of the time. I would say after the Tomb of Semerkhet, going into the train level is where the game started to become unenjoyable for me.

The train level is terrible. There's a horrible amount of enemy spam, all of which are ninjas which can just deflect bullets with a knife for some reason. The puzzle isn't even interesting or fun. The awkward platforming made for a lot of annoying deaths of just falling off the train, the game fell off pretty badly at this point. And it does not get any better at all, Alexandria gave me flashbacks to Venice in TR2 with all the ridiculous hitscan enemies. The amount of backtracking I had to do to trigger the obscure but necessary cutscene in Alexandria, and to get the gate key both of which are very easily missable was very annoying. Then the coastal ruins just feel completely empty, there are so many nooks and crannies that have absolutely nothing. After finally figuring out the gate key thing, the levels inside the coastal ruins aren't any better. None of the puzzles at this point are enjoyable or well designed. Poseidon's Temple is annoying, I love getting spammed by enemy skeletons who are only vulnerable to explosive weapons. The lost library is a similar story, it's just annoying and the puzzle is not good. The beetle enemies in the Temple of Isis are terrible, I don't understand why they need to be completely unkillable. And it's way too easy to get softlocked in Cleopatra's level. I did not get a single ounce of enjoyment out of the entire Alexandria chapter, the puzzles are very poorly designed.

And then there was City of the Dead, surely another city level couldn't go terribly right? The only cool part about it is the motorcycle, again the vehicles are fun. Everything else about is terrible. The entire puzzle sequence in the first area is "find this hidden obscure area to unlock another hidden obscure area and eventually this long sequence of levers will open the big area gate", it is quite bad especially with all the hitscan enemies around the level. The 2nd area of the chapter completely broke me, and is where I decided to put down the game. The minotaur puzzle is one of the worst game sequences I have ever experienced before, it should have gone smoothly but for some reason the first time I tried to trap the minotaur the gates bugged out and he just respawned at the start. So I gave it another attempt, this time the gates didn't bug out and I successfully trapped him, but because I left the motorcycle on the other side of the ravine I was literally softlocked and had to revert to a save from 30 minutes earlier. Keep in mind there is a rope swing, which is an almost non-functional mechanic in this game and takes me 5 minutes to even successfully use, which is necessary to use every time I have to redo this. The final attempt, the gate bugged out yet again so that the gate lever was inverted, the lever is already in a bad place because it lures the minotaur out of the trap and requires very close timing to work. The gate lever being inverted made this practically impossible, I spent maybe 30 minutes just trying to get it to work and it just didn't.

If Tomb Raider 4 was half as long I could get through it with no issues. If I'm not mistaken this is the longest classic Tomb Raider game, and so it way overstays its welcome. TR4 has some very high highs, but some extremely low lows. Honestly if it weren't for the minotaur section bugging out so badly for me I could probably finish the game just fine, but I do not want to subject myself to that again. I do well to keep a cool head in more frustrating games like this, but that section just did me in. Take my rating with a grain of salt because I obviously didn't finish the game, but I can't imagine it got much better from where I ended off.

Rating: 5/10
Completion: Retired
Time: 12 hours, 54 minutes
Days taken: 7
Next in the series: Tomb Raider: Chronicles (PC via TR4-6 Remastered, 2000)
Series progress: 9/11

Other Games & Media
I've been taking a break from playing too many games right now, I'm just not feeling it. I'm doing perfectly fine so don't worry about me, I'm just trying to slow things down for a bit. I have been playing a few games, mostly comfort games like Geometry Dash and Street Fighter 6. I've been attempting Nine Circles in Geometry Dash and I got to around 50%, it has been very fun. And I finally got past the competitive brick wall in Street Fighter and pushed all the way to Gold, which I somehow rode to on a 9 win streak, the final match to get into gold was probably the best I've ever played so it's going great. I've also been playing some Marvel Rivals competitive with some friends, I've been trying to push to Diamond 3 but I've been hard stuck in Platinum 1 for the past few days. So yeah, I've been playing mostly online and comfort games, again just taking it easy.

Up Next & Additional Notes
I haven't even started Mega Man 4 yet, and today is actually the first time in 4 days that I've even booted up Tomb Raider. I think I'll start Mega Man 4 today or tomorrow, I'm definitely feeling it now. I've heard worse things about Chronicles, but I'm hoping the much shorter length of it will make it completely doable, just 11 hours compared to the 18 hours of TR4. And I have heard some things about Angel of Darkness, apparently the remaster doesn't fix any of it's major issues so it should be a very interesting experience. I don't like to retire games, I strongly avoid it, but I definitely have my limits lol. Anyway, thanks for reading through my short TR4 rant, and until next time!

Daily Challenge - 2025-02-21
Score: 270 / 300
🟪🟦🟪 🟦 = 90 | R | Axiom Verge
🟦🟪🟦 🟦 = 84 | P | Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition
🟪🟪🟪 🟦 = 96 | S | The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

I've never posted here before but I've played this game every day for a few months and this is by far my best game.

Weekly Update #30 - Death and FOMO

I decided to jump straight into Planescape: Torment and hold off on Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion a bit longer. So far I'm enjoying it, although it's not quite what I expected. I suppose I was expecting a typical party based RPG, and - while it certainly is one - it plays more like a visual novel most of the time. I'm a narrative junkie, so I dig it.

Thus far the game seems to be an exploration of what it means to die, or to truly live for that matter. Just about everything in the game is a discourse about death or is death-adjacent. The setting is really unique, being a sort of hub city in the middle of a multiverse of sorts. There are a bunch of factions with different ideologies that range from depressing, to thought provoking, to absolutely insane. I'm not a big fan of the combat, mechanics, or inventory systems, but to be fair I'm still learning them. The dialogue is where it's at in my experience, and the writing is incredibly good. I'm intrigued by where the main storyline could be heading, even if I find some of the philosophical underpinnings of it all a bit overblown up to this point. I have just reached the Alley of Whispering Sighs - or something like that - where my corpse was found and now there's a statue of a face that claims to be "pregnant" needs me to undo some repairs so it can bust open. Wild.

Aside from that, I was stricken with some pretty intense Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) recently and went down the rabbit holes of watching a bunch of "25 best *insert genre here* games you must play" videos in the background while working, combing through my libraries and bemoaning all the stuff I haven't played yet, and - worst of all - shopped some steam sales. These are always bad ideas because they result in a diminishment of enjoyment with the game I'm currently playing. I'd say I recovered pretty well, but it did get me thinking about this blog and my approach to games in general.

I started the blog because I wanted something to help me focus on a single game at a time and manage to actually, you know, finish games. It's a kind of self-imposed accountability on my hobby that keeps it from meandering too much. Where I think I've shot myself in the foot a couple of times is by projecting out ahead of time the next 5-10 games I want to play. In practice such a list seems like just another way to organize things and be disciplined, but in reality it makes a hobby feel a bit like homework. Long story short, I still plan on tackling 3-4 more Final Fantasy games this year, but aside from that - and whatever co-op stuff with my friends, wife, or kids pop up - I'm just going to take things one game at a time and decide in real time what I want to play next immediately after a completion instead of referencing a list I made weeks or months earlier.

Speaking of co-op: a friend and co-worker has convinced me to dip my toe into Warframe. I made it clear to him that I am only going to play it as long as it keeps me interested, and probably only for one or two short-ish sessions a week, but we'll see what happens. I'm very cautious of live service and endless or nearly endless games. So far the world and story are intriguing and I like the fast paced hack and slash shoot 'em up nature of it. I chose Mags as my first frame and I'm just a few hours into the story.

As for those Steam sales - I couldn't resist snagging Deus Ex and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous at a discount. Between Epic games freebies and Steam sales I'll either A) never run out of vidya to play or B) learn restraint and how to say "no".

Until next time nerds!

Hey guys! Time for a little update!
I got a bit of time this week to start and/or continue some games, so here I am to avoid monster posts like I usually do. 😅

Here’s the rundown:

COMPLETED GAMES
The mandatory hidden cat games: A Shelter Full of Cats, An Arcade Full of Cats, 100 Romantic Cats, Stray Cats in Cozy Town, 100 New Year Cats & 100 Waiting Cats


The last few days have had their ups and downs. The “2025 update” for An Arcade Full of Cats and the game Stray Cats in Cozy Town were awesome (which is especially surprising for Stray Cats in Cozy Town since it’s a collab with 100 Cozy Games). A Shelter Full of Cats was also a breath of fresh air. These three titles are colorful, relaxing, and really entertaining, with little Easter eggs here and there. Some aspects could use improvement, like the hint system (for example, A Shelter Full of Cats immediately reveals the exact positions of the cats instead of indicating a general area), but overall, they’re still really enjoyable hidden cat games.

On the other hand, 100 New Year Cats and 100 Waiting Cats were so bad that I didn’t even bother with the DLCs. The cats barely look like cats—some are just two tiny dots for eyes and nothing else. It’s extremely disappointing for a hidden CATS game, but I expected nothing more from 100 Cozy Games. 😮‍💨



STARTED GAMES
Slender Threads

A great recent discovery! You play as Harvey, a traveling salesman and aspiring author who stops in Villa Ventana, a decrepit little village, hoping to make a quick buck. But the longer he stays in town, the stranger things get—a weird creature lurking at the edge of the woods, a radio calling out to him specifically, and eerie visions of macabre kidnappings. Help Harvey uncover the truth by exploring the streets of Villa Ventana, gathering clues, and trying to avoid trouble with the local police.

Winion Virus

Another small game I picked up during last week’s sales. You take on the role of a caretaker for winions—tiny, adorable AIs that live inside computers. As the player, you become an illegal caretaker for these conscious little beings. What could go wrong, right?

Well, so far, nothing’s gone south for me, but based on the trailers I’ve seen, it’s only a matter of time before things take a dark turn. I’d recommend this to anyone who enjoys cutesy-creepy games like I do. I’ll report back when I’ve played more!

Birds Organized Neatly

A great puzzle game featuring birds. That’s it. 😆
I’ve completed the dog and cat versions, and the bird edition is just as good so far.



CONTINUED GAMES
Lkyt.

I started a new route (Takeru) in this BL game. So far, it’s rather disappointing compared to the first route I completed, but since the relationship between the MC and the love interest is still developing, I’ll hold off on further judgment. All I’ll say for now is that love stories between an upper-class individual and a commoner are really not my cup of tea.

Bloodborne

I completed a couple of dungeons and continued Byrgenwerth. Progress is much slower in co-op since we have to do everything twice, but this creepy dark fantasy Souls-like remains one of my favorites—despite all the PlayStation Network issues lately. 😓

Love and Deepspace

I’ve been farming for the limited event lately. The cards are amazing, and the stories set in a dystopian post-apocalyptic environment are totally my vibe! Plus, we finally get to see a certain character—who’s usually playful and bright—show his darker side (Rafayel), and I love it! Can’t wait to complete the whole event!



GAMES ADDED TO THE LIBRARY
- Winion Virus (Started)
- Birds Organized Neatly (Started)
- Slender Threads (Started)
- Urban Myth Dissolution Center (Backlog, the premise seemed interesting, and I almost bought it on Switch from PlayAsia. I'm happy I waited and got it for way less on Steam.)
- Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector (Backlog, I have the prequel, and I hate not having the sequel ready when I play a game.)
- Cryptmaster (Backlog, I really appreciated the creative liberty of this game. The idea of being able to write anything and make it happen is the pinnacle of freedom for a player in a similar environment. Anyway, I really like games that play on words and linguistics (like Homicipher), and this one seemed to scratch that itch.)
- Chronicles of Tal'Dun: The Remainder (Backlog, I played the demo and quite enjoyed it, so I bought the full game.)
- Rain and the Wolf (Backlog, a cute BL game inspired by the “Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf” fairytale. I loved the first episode of Taisho x Alice, an otome with a similar vibe that is also inspired by fairytales, and the art is gorgeous, so I grabbed Rain and the Wolf while it was on sale.)
- The Silent Kingdom (Backlog, one of my long-time wishlisted games that mixes otome and RPG in a single experience. I can’t wait to play it, but sadly, only one chapter out of three is available right now since it is in early access.)
- Dawnfolk (Backlog, this one was a spur-of-the-moment purchase. It seems extremely similar to Loop Hero, one of my favorite management games, hence the quick buy.)


That’s it for now! The past few days have brought a lot of variety and new discoveries, which is surprising given that midterm exams are coming up.
See you all soon!


Beginning of the Journey Backlog: 794 Games + 20 DLCs
Beginning of the Journey Time to Beat All: 1007 Days 19 Hours

Previous Backlog: 934 Games + 64 DLCs
Previous Time to Beat All: 1225 Days 17 Hours

Current Backlog: 944 Games + 64 DLCs
Current Time to Beat All: 1232 Days 4 Hours

Daily Challenge - 2025-02-21
Score: 153 / 300
🟦🟪🟦 🟦 = 83 | R | Axiom Verge
⬛🟦🟦 🟦 = 56 | S | Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition
⬛⬛⬛ 🟩 = 14 | P | The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play

I'll start with the good first... actually more average than good and then the bad... and by bad I mean close to Red Banner bad. I did play one more game and this will get it's write-up when I finish everything... or ragequit if I can't. Funny thing is, if I do ragequit, this is all on me!

FROG CLIMBERS (2016)
Rock Climbing Co-Op Game
TeamCrew
A co-op multiplayer game that is played by 4 players controlling a frog with controller climbing a mountain. The controls are odd and this is the type of game I rage quit but I did the tutorial and the Daily mountain (single player and every day has a new mountain). That's where I call it a day. WIth friends, the game looks like it could be fun though is no longer sold on Steam. I currently have a messed up finger and this actually made it hurt and well as my other hand. Other than that it's not the worst thing ever.

If you wanted a game to play with friends that more likely than not would have got you all angry then yes, I would have recommended this. It's no longer on Steam though.

GOLDEN AXED: A CANCELLED PROTOTYPE (2020)
Side Scrolling Action
Sega Studios Australia, The Eccentric Ape
This is a prototype of a new Golden Axe game in 2.5D. The game was originally developed in 2012 and cancelled. The prototype is only 5 minutes long, has no magic system and repetitive combat though character models and backgrounds were decent.

Calling in Golden Axed was a dick move bt Sega though, as was the original marketing for it that basically called the game a joke. Imagine working on a game, having it cancelled (it actually looked like it had some potential) and then the company cancelling it releasing your prototype and basically telling people that this is janky crap. An original developer called them out (rightfully) and the game was removed from Steam. When you start it now, the intro blurb is a lot nicer to the game.

If this was still available then I would have recommended this. It's only 5 minutes long but an interesting look at a game we could have had.

INDECISION (2018)
Platformer
bilge
A small platformer in which you kind of make decisions and try to get all achievements... I have 6 of the 31 left. I will use a guide for the rest but onnotes noes want to work so I might be doing something wrong. There are a few minor issues. Once you do one of the screens, you need to finish the game off before starting from the beginning. I messed up the first platforming section twice so had to wait for playthrough 3 to get the achievement. Another is having to do the game over and over to get some of the achievements (the game is really short though).

I'd recommend this as it's short but it won't be everyone's cup of tea. Get it on sale though.

WANBA WARRIORS (2019)
Fighting Game
Wanba Studio, Beijing Big Puteng Technology Co., Ltd.
This is more multiplayer focused but I decided to try the single player. I could not get a hang of the controls at all... they absolutely awful!

Not recommended at all.

And the above isn't the really bad game...

NOTTOLOT (2024)
Puzzle Game
Bandai Namco Studios Inc., Bandai Namco Online Inc.
Just because a game is short, free, has good graphics and sound, it doesn't automatically make it a good game.

The graphics and music are nice. The robots are nicely designed and there are some interesting puzzles. To need to hack robots to get to solve puzzles. My little robot sometimes couldn't do this and would die causing a restart of the level.

Stage 1 was good. The puzzles were interesting. I got 2 out of 3 collectibles and would have gone back later to get the 3rd.

Stage 2 was were the problems started. The last part of the stage was confusing but I finally figured what to do. I did die due to bad controls but decided to try again. I then restart the third part and I get stuck in a wall and then fall in a void... I rage quit. I gave it some time and went back and... I had to do Stage 2 from the start. I easily did it. Again I missed a collectible.

Stage 3 is when my blood began to boil. On the first part I died once due to controls but this was fine. What wasn't fine was having an enemy push me until again, I get stuck in the terrain. I just had to restart the second part. I then had to control a robot that climbs walls and I finally was going to progress until I ended up falling through the terrain again. I then finally did it. The next part involved a robot that sucked at moving over platforms. When it did work, I had to go over platforms that would fall... There was a collectible near one. I failed over and over trying to get it so skipped it.

I get to the final part and the puzzle game decided to be a game of reflexes... this I could do perfectly lol.

What sucked as well was cutscenes (they were really short) not being skippable. I did watch a Youtube video and he did get the collectible first attempt so some of these issue might just be me sucking. Falling a few times through the level in such a short game though is totally on the game.

I don't recommend it but people wanting a short free puzzle game might actually like this because as I wrote earlier, some of the puzzles are decent.

Windmills automatically enhance video game town coziness by a factor of at least ten. This is fact.

100% I'm a sucker for them

Loved this village from Trails through Daybreak

Windmills automatically enhance video game town coziness by a factor of at least ten. This is fact.

These are just the Steam VR games. I'm not sure I have others in other launchers.

CLOUDBORN
FILTHY, STINKING, ORCS!
The VR Mods for HALF-LIFE, HALF-LIFE 2, HL2 EPISODE 1 and HL2 EPISODE 2
MUSEUM OF OTHER REALITIES
REPUBLIQUE VR
THE TEAR
WADDLE HOME

So yesterday I finished Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader on PC in 130h48m.
This was definitely a long ride. I had started my playthrough in December 2023 and with ~131h it's the second longest playthrough of my life.

I'm so happy I found my save file again. I had stopped playing after chapter 3 which was quite a bit tedious and just when I was ready to return it seemed like the game (and therefore the save) was gone and I thought I had actually deleted a ~80h save. Luckily, just a few days later I realized that my external hard disk had simply gotten reassigned a new letter.

I loved my time with Rogue Trader. I think it's the best CRPG I've ever played and finished. I mean Pillars of Eternity is also fantastic (and I put ~160h into POE1 and 2 combined) and I loved Fallout 1+2 (but finished them 20 years ago as a teenager and with cheats, that doesn't count to me) but Rogue Trader is even better. Actually I just realize that I haven't really finished all that many CRPGs. But I have a shitton in my backlog. Maybe I'll play KOTOR 2 of Fallout New Vegas soonish. I also want to replay Fallout 2 and properly try Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. But I am going to need a loooong break, at least months, before getting into another >100h game.

Best about the game:
- the atmosphere, the lore, the Warhammer 40k stuff. Owlcat Games did their research. It's such a believable W40k universe. One aspect of this that I've mentioned before: Usually I can't even bring myself to play evil characters in CRPGs or at least choose some mean or evil action. But in W40k it is very much reasonable to kill a few innocent sick civilians if that lowers the risk of hundreds or thousands of your crew to get infected by the same virus. Also, I've killed off 2 characters that would have joined my party. Simply because the dogmatic-style character I played would hate xenos. I loved that about RT.
- the main story and the companion quests are really good.
- the Void Shadows DLC. This is even on another level. Extremely tense story.

Neutral:
- the colony management is boring at best and it's tedious to have to return to your colonies every so often.
- the starship fights are also a weaker aspect of the game. I was never looking forward to them.

Worst:
- chapter 3: tedious idea/twist, takes away all the player's freedom to do things in the order they want.
- This is obviously subjective, but the combat is waaaay too complicated for me. I had posted about this before. Just take a look at these images here:
https://howlongtobeat.com/forum/thread/1455/20#post110618
https://howlongtobeat.com/forum/thread/1455/20#post111380
And keep in mind you have to make sense of all that for (at least) 6 characters and plan ahead for all of their next few levels.
If you can actually make proper use of all your skills/talents/whatever in Rogue Trader, you should use your analytical brain to crack some CIA level encryption. Kidding aside, I'm way too stupid to actually employ all these statistics. "Luckily", the game gets easy af after maybe ~50-70h or so f you do everything there is. I never had to wonder anymore if I would lose or win a fight. Might sound boring to some but I played the game for the story (as I've heard many other gamers do). If you're going to play for the combat mechanics, I'm sure the combat will remain a challenge if you adjust the difficulty level (I played on default).

Sticking to the original question first, I have many gaming hot takes, I've played a ton of games in the past 2 years which are very highly regarded that I just couldn't see the appeal for. Without getting into too much detail because I could discuss all these games for hours, for me Doom 2 and 3 are overrated, the classic Tomb Raider games, a lot of the Halo games, Shadow of the Erdtree, Metroid Prime 2, Hades, and Oblivion just from the top of my head. I don't think these games are bad or don't deserve any praise, I just know what games I like, I have my own personal taste and those just aren't it for me. I don't have nearly as many underrated games, the only one I can think of right now is Kirby Star Allies which I rather enjoyed.

Getting into the deeper discussion here though, I completely agree with EchoEcho, Civilwarfare, and MeowZeDung. Overrated and underrated is more of a "this game is/isn't for me". People play games for different reasons, there's tons of different genres and play-styles so every person who plays a decent amount of games likely has games they believe to be overrated or underrated in their eyes. I won't get mad at someone for disliking one of my favorite games. One thing I think happens too often is that a lot of people just follow the review crowd, if a game is extremely popular and highly rated surely it has to be an amazing game right? Sometimes I think people review games higher than they actually enjoyed the game because of the pressure, I'm sure it isn't a major issue in game reviewing of course, but I think people should be less afraid to express distaste for a popular game they maybe didn't enjoy. That's something I've personally gotten better at doing recently, I try to rate games purely off of my personal enjoyment as well as other related factors, trying to ignore any mass popularity or raving reviews the game may have.

At least those are just my immediate thoughts on it, I haven't been around reviewing and playing all these games for as long as others have on here.

There's a decent difference between my longest completions and longest play times.

My 5 longest playthroughs (I don't have an exact time for all of these):
1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (100%, ~185 hours)
2. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (~140 hours)
3. Elden Ring (100%, ~130 hours)
4. Risk of Rain 2 (100%, ~130 hours)
5. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (87 hours)

As for my most played games excluding BOTW:
1. Stardew Valley (~500 hours, split across multiple platforms)
2. Bloons TD 6 (274 hours + who knows how many hours on mobile)
3. Elden Ring (254 hours, multiple playthroughs + DLC)
4. Terraria (211 hours, numerous playthroughs)
5. Risk of Rain 2 (178 hours, 100% + randomizers + new DLC)

1. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (265 hours total. Technically beaten, but there is still so much else to do in the game.)
2. Elden Ring (136 hours)
3. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (116 hours)
4. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (108 hours to 100% everything in the base game, still need a second hard mode playthrough for platinum)
5. Assassin's Creed Origins (100 hours to 100% base game and all DLC)
6. Final Fantasy XVI (86 hours for platinum trophy)
7. Persona 5 (86 hours)
8. Viscera Cleanup Detail (85 hours for almost all steam achievements, all maps beaten)
9. Nioh 2: Complete Edition (73 hours to beat all main and side missions in base game and DLC)
10. Cyberpunk 2077 (70 hours for platinum and DLC trophies)

Seconding this argument! Boiling down your perception of popular opinion into what is underrated or overrated is, at the end of the day, seeking affirmation for the difference between that and your personal opinion. If you did or didn’t like something, that’s totally fine.

Lately, I’ve been having many moments where I rate something very different from the HLTB/Metacritic/Google’s X% of people like this game scores. At first I was like OP, wondering where this discrepancy was coming from. But at the end of the day, the discrepancy is the development of your personal taste in what you like or value out of video games, and [hopefully] the development in how you engage with them. Can you see the flaws in something you like? Do you like it despite these flaws? Can you see something for what it was 30 years ago? Not that anyone’s under obligation to do these things, but it might be more meaningful to unpack why this discrepancy is here.

There was a thread on here sometime last year that asked a similar question: “why are people giving so many 10/10 scores?” As Civilwarfare is saying, with the democratization of reviewing games, anyone can give a perfect score to anything. The worst game you’ve ever played is a 10/10 to someone on here. But I think a large part of that and most ratings is (1) people rating things based on nostalgia for something they played years ago and by extension (2) people giving blanket scores to something they just generally liked. It is much, much easier to give something a score and not back it up with why you feel that way than to critically engage with something and then boil it down to a score. Finally, the most granular you can get on HLTB is a 20-point scale. Most of the time, there is just not enough nuance in peoples’ reviews or scores, but they all get fed into the same averages and metrics.

Developing your personal taste is going to take a long, long time, and at some point it’s going to be pushed on by what you think popular opinion is. If you just want a community of people who agree with you, you can easily find that on somewhere like Reddit or TikTok, but at the end of the day, regarding video game scores, it’s okay that yours isn’t the same as the averages we see online. Small caveat though is case some weirdos are misconstruing this, but decreasing a score after seeing a woman, person of color, or LGBTQ+ person in a video game is fucked and not what I mean when I say that developing your personal taste is a good thing and that you should own it.

Reading so many user reviews on here over the past 3 years and it really is easy to see that most will just make baseless claims without any evidence to back up their point. Sometimes, I wonder if they even played the game in question at all. You spend so many hours with a game and all you can write is a paragraph if even that? That just gets me suspicious.

But at the end of the day, regarding any online discourse, a narrative will begin and it's up to the majority of people to decide if they want to believe it. I just wish the majority wasn't so gullible.

I've just come to realize that when it comes to mainstream entertainment, I'm just not going to agree with majority. Either is something overpraised or overhated with very little inbetween.

Ooof, this place is so serious. I just wanted to discuss games.

@Mods (if any), you can delete this thread, it's a misfire. I didn't find a way to do it myself if it is possible.

Welcome to my world, every time I try to start a meaningful discussion, 9 times out of 10, things never go my way.

Loved this village from Trails through Daybreak

Game #252: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Platform: Switch
Main + Extras: 28h 31m 29s
Rating: 7/10
Date Completed: February 20, 2025
Picked By: ThomasE

Games Synopsis: Solve murders while being trapped in a high school with other students.

Blog: I think this is a pretty good game, although it has some pretty big flaws.

First of all, I want to say that I very much enjoy these kinds of games. I really loved Ace Attorney, and while I don't think Danganronpa 1 is as good as any of the games in that series, I think it can still stand on its own as a good game.

For those who aren't familiar with Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc, it's a visual novel where a group of students are trapped in a high school, where they are encouraged to kill one of their fellow students and go through a trial without being voted off as the killer. Your job as the main character is to solve the murders and convince everyone else to vote for the true murderer, or else everyone besides the killer will die.

I really like the set up of these. You have a few in-game days before any killings take place to learn a little more about the school you're in as well as your fellow students. This gives a bit of a breather between all the killings and trials you'll be going through, and it's nice to learn a bit about the characters.

Quick tangent: one of the criticisms towards the game that I've seen is that the characters aren't really given much depth. While certain characters I could definitely see that criticism applying, I don't think it fits or works with every character. For example, the people who die in the first chapter aren't really going to have much depth to them versus the characters who end up making it to the final chapter. That's just the reality of this kind of game, and in some cases I felt it heightened the sense of dread or guilt that I felt because it would take away these characters that I wanted to learn more about. That fit with the theming for me.

Sorry that tangent was not at all "quick." Back to the game itself.

The investigation portion of the game is pretty self-explanatory. When a murder happens, you check any related areas for clues.

The class trial is arguably supposed to be the main focus... but to be honest some of my bigger criticisms come from this portion of the game. Before I get into that, the class trial is where you learn about all the details of the case and finally start connecting the dots with all of the evidence you found. However, this is not exactly like Ace Attorney where you present evidence and press people for more details to find contradictions. You do indeed do that in Danganronpa, but they're like mini games rather than going through dialog options. It's really interesting in concept and they all revolve a neat gun motif that looks pretty sleek.

These mini games were kind of the bane of my existence. The tutorials were terrible and only made things more confusing. What's worse is that every trial they added something new to one or multiple of the mini games which only added to the amount of tutorials and confusion. One of the mini games, Bullet Time Battles, I genuinely went through almost the entire game without figuring out how it worked, stumbling my way to success the few times it popped up. It wasn't until literally the last trial that I basically became "perfect" at it. This and chapter 2 were basically the biggest flaws for me.

Speaking of chapter 2... this one was a mess. I am going to be very vague as to not spoil what happens, but anyone familiar with the game knows what I'm going to touch on. Chapter 2 started out just fine for me but at some point in the trial portion, the game seemingly decided that it wanted to make some social commentary on gender, gender roles in particular. I am not against the discussion of gender or other such social topics. I am not one of those loud gamer types on Twitter who thinks that politics should stay out of gaming. However, this topic is handled so tactlessly that I wish they didn't cover it at all, particularly to how the class even come across this discovery. What's more is that I think due to some potential mistranslation Japanese to English, the game can come across a little... bigoted between reveals. I don't think that was intentional but it easily comes across as such, and the debates about this online... 10+ years later only cements my belief on that.

Chapter 3 I also didn't like too much but only because I already figured out who the killer was by the time the dead body was discovered. It was so obvious and the antagonist for that chapter was quite underwhelming despite their ultimate ability. I was surprised by how unsurprising that chapter was.

Everything else I thought was pretty good. I didn't really have anything negative to say for the other trials, I thought they were quite good. My favorite trial probably being the one in chapter 4. I liked the character designs, everyone looked great. The music was fantastic and probably my favorite part of the whole game.

This game definitely has some major flaws for me, but I think it's pretty good.

PS, the "School Mode" that you unlock after beating the game is kinda boring. I won't count that against the game but I'm sorry it just sucks.

TL:DR: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is a good murder mystery visual novel game with some nice art, great music, and is overall intriguing to follow the story to see what happens next. It certainly has its issues for me with trial tutorials being terrible while also having two chapters that just aren't up to par with the others. If you can get past that, and also some content that can be a little triggering for certain people, I think this could be a solid visual novel for most people.

Up Next: I think this was my longest review yet. Will the next game be as opinion heavy? Let's see...



Stardew Valley! Picked by Uvehj! Spoilers: I very much love this game since I've played it on Switch already. This time I'll be playing on my Steam Deck.

Daily Challenge - 2025-02-21
Score: 186 / 300
🟦🟦🟦 🟪 = 78 | P | Axiom Verge
🟧🟦🟪 🟦 = 70 | R | Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition
🟧🟩🟩 🟥 = 38 | S | The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

Play @ https://howlongtobeat.com/play