Happy Love Month everybody! Awww.
Bleurgh. Enough of that. We all gave our wives, girlfriends, husbands, boyfriends and significant others enough attention on Tuesday. Now it’s back to the backlog. Are we all still keeping up? Don’t forget you can find those good old rules right here.
Updated scores in the comments! Who will be losing/winning this month?
Email the author of this post at matc@tap-repeatedly.com.
Currently at -5, and I’m going to bump myself to -6 because I reinstalled Mass Effect 2 (again) with foolish dreams of finally finishing it before ME3 arrives.
Steerpike’s LOS Score: -6
+1 is my total again after completing Saints Row the Third yesterday.
We will be getting Mass Effect 3 for sure when that comes around.
-2. And it will be dropping quickly in the coming weeks!
I picked up Borderlands (with all expansion packs) when it was on sale recently for Playstation Plus subscribers.
Wait a minute, I believe I downloaded a bunch of free PS+ games recently. Final Fantasty V and prob a handful of others. If I haven’t installed them yet they technically don’t count againt me do they? Do they?!?!?! 🙁
I’m currently at:
Games Acquired: 4
Games Completed: 1
Score for February: -3
Year to Date Score: -6
Eep! I’m down to minus 6! On the down side, I’ve pre-ordered a PlayStation Vita and a bunch of games. On the plus side, I did complete Resident Evil Revelations on the 3DS. I’ve finally scratched up a +1! Well it did only take two months..
Well I’m at 0. Mass Effect 3 will be my first purchase of the year. You can beat 2 in a week, Steerpike, no sweat. Harbour Master can probably even get there in time, and he just started the first.
That will put me at -1, but I am always progressing a bit in Skyrim (until Demon’s Souls took over) and I want to get LA Noire over with too. I will finish ME3 in a week easily so… I might be +3 come mid-March!
Hey, whoa, Steerpike, we can’t be adding points to our scores for reinstalling games! That would open up a whole can-shaped vat of worms. It’s all about the buying/acquiring not the reinstalling!
Speaking of buying/acquiring: what are the rules on bundles? I bought the Valentines Indie Royale bundle for the Soulcaster games and got Hoard and Lume in the process (as well as the romantic Zeno Clash which I’ve already finished) but I don’t have any plans on playing Hoard, not yet at least.
They definitely count, Gregg. It’s called the log of shame, not the log of everlasting sympathy and good will.
p.s. Did you change back to the goat avatar simply to intimidate my penguin? Or did the pink woman just disappear because you and Armand have had a falling out? Hm.. I spoke with him on Steam a few nights ago…poor fellow really needs to put down the drink.
OK I’m game.
Recently finished Demon’s Souls: +1
Purchased Raw Danger: -1
So I’m at 0 for the year. Good thing existing backlogs don’t count. I’m hearing the Dark Souls siren call though…
Do it! DO IT
Maybe we should have a Log of Everlasting Sympathy and Good Will as well. Not sure what it would be for though.
So that means that buying a game gives you -1. Then, if you decide to reinstall it, you get another -1. THAT’S SILLY PENGUIN. Mat C, the adjudicator, Log of Shame Overlord, what say you?
The bull is back to remind you that peppercorns do not function as eyes.
Gregg, the rules on bundles is that anything you acquire that you intend on playing at any point counts as -1 for the Log. For example, if you pick up a Humble Bundle with five games in, but you only intend on playing four of the games (and have zero intention of trying or even installing the other, or the fourth is a game you already own), then feel free to count that as -4 rather than -5.
Regarding re-installs, that counts for nothing. You already own the game you’re re-installing so I don’t think that count’s as a -1.
By the way, you boys are making this a damn sight more complicated than it was supposed to be, haha.
This is serious business.
Oh Mat, our whining has only just begun. We haven’t even covered episodic games and DLC!
All right then, if a reinstall doesn’t coun’t I’m changing my score to -5, barring a protest from The Penguin of Cruelty. My focus on ME2 will hurt my long-term standings, though, since I am not focusing on other games that could conceivably improve my score… after all, if ME2 doesn’t count as a -1, I can’t in good conscience take it as a +1 when/if I finish.
If you finish it Steerpike, it’s +1 — dem’s the rules. Any game acquired since January 1st that you intend to finish/exhaust is -1, finish/exhaust a game in your (entire) backlog +1.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOO
OOO
OO
*Though given that I’ve started and failed to finish Mass Effect 2 four times now, I hold out little hope.
Would it be unutterably cheesy to count a game if you’ve finished the main stuff but there’s still some bonus content left?
I believe Mat C, our Log-Keeper, has indicated that you earn a +1 if you “complete what you intended to complete” as far as the game is concerned, but you never know!
Okay, I didn’t get in on the action in January, so I have to figure out my score…
Backlog: -40 (which is where I stopped counting)
Acquired in February: -0
Finished in February: +0
Score: -40+
I’m winning.
I finally finished a game (The Witcher 2) so I guess I can post now.
Acquired in January and February : 0
Finished in February: 1
Score: +1
Dix, you do realise we are only covering games we’ve bought in 2012 as part of the backlog, right?
Looks like Scout and AJ are duking it out for the top spot. Heh, it’s quite sad that +1 puts you at the top.
@Scout: how’d you find The Witcher 2?
Gregg, sometimes I think Witcher 2 was made solely for me. The main character is a dashing, handsome freelancer who answers to no man, gets all the girls and has cool scars which pretty much describes me to a tee.
Seriously, I loved this second installment. Coming from Skyrim, it was bracing to play a game with a linear plot that branched in the middle of the game, making you choose which way to go. No having it all. It was hard in places too but the characters and the stories were compelling. Some of the technical stuff was annoying, like miniscule hotspots for looting and loosey-goosey controls that take a while to get used to. There are QTE minigames which I loathe but mostly just ignored except for when a quest made me do one. You have to have some tolerance for ambiguity cause it’s not your black and white choice game. No good vs evil, mostly a choice between really evil and sorta evil. Nothing is clear cut and you are forced to use instinct, forced to go with your gut on some decisions which really makes it immersive. I was obsessed with this game for the two weeks I played it and I only saw one half of it. I still have the other branch to play. It’s definitely adult fare with cussing and boobs and such so if you have little ones nearby I would wait until they are in bed to start it up. It’s not a game changer or a massive towering masterpiece of heartbreaking brilliance (thank god). Just a really good Eastern European RPG.
I think I’m at +1:
downloaded Spelunky and Ruckblende
finished Braid (and tried to get to one of the areas where a star is, ha ha) and Nightsky on normal difficulty; played Nightsky on alternative difficulty until the point where I decided that I may or may not get around to trying to play some more on alternative difficulty sometime
realized Ruckblende doesn’t run on my computer
And I achieved an objective in Strange Adventures in Infinite Space (destroying the Yellow Kawangi), so I might even be at +2. Ha ha!
You can tell from my games list that I shouldn’t even really be doing this.
@Scout: “…it’s not your black and white choice game. No good vs evil, mostly a choice between really evil and sorta evil. Nothing is clear cut…”
Wow, that’s good to hear. It’s funny, only the other day I was talking to Armand about tough, morally ambiguous choices being rare in games these days. All too often they’re black and white, good vs evil like you say; I love me some shades of grey. Did you ever play the original Witcher? How does that fare next to it?
@matt w: Sod the stars on Braid. I think the slow moving cloud one was the fairest game, what with the cloud being very conspicuously and unusually placed, the rest were just like “What? How the…?”
I’ve nearly picked up Infinite Space a few times but wasn’t sure whether it would be my bag. What’s it like?
Just bought Dear Esther. I’m assuming it counts against the Log even though it’s not a game, it’s a… thing. -6.
The good news is I should be up by two by the end of the month… if I apply myself…
Steerpike! Please let me know if Dear Esther is the required reading most game sites seem to say it is. Based on the content of the reviews, I really just want to watch a video of it, but everyone is gushing at the same time.
I promise! It’s going to get some attention tonight, as a sort of Mass Effect 2 diversion.
I’m in the same boat as Amanda, is it required reading? I could buy it and find out but that costs money and time and… nyeah, what’s my backlog score again? I actually downloaded the original mod waaay back, but never got round to it. Then before I knew it, a spangly remake was in the works so I waited. And now it’s out and everyone is getting gushy. Even one of my console buddies who hasn’t a clue when it comes to the more ‘obscure’ PC stuff is talking about it.
Gregg B: Infinite Space is free and super short. You should definitely try it out if you think you might like it; won’t cost you more than half an hour to find out, and that’s counting load times.
More in a bit maybe; my kid just woke up and there is a confusing thing or two that might help you out (mostly: you don’t really have to actively manage combat very much).
Oh hang on, I’m thinking of a DS game! :-S Such a nub.
Looks like Star Control and SPAZ.
Oh. Well, it’s still free and short. But one difference between SAIS and SPAZ seems to be that SPAZ involves a lot of micromanaging in combat, whereas as far as I can tell fine maneuvering doesn’t give you much advantage in SAIS. (Or it might just be that I’m very very bad at it.)
Mostly it’s about trying to get the best systems and pick your battles. Which means there’s a lot of luck involved in getting good systems early, but you can always try again! And then maybe again. It’s a pretty popcorny game, I find.
Analogue: A Hate Story completed! +1 bitches! -5
OK, here’s a little more about SAIS: You have a randomly generated map and have limited time to fly around from star to star collecting stuff. Plotting out a path is one of the challenges. At each star you might find a (usually hostile) group of aliens; combat is mostly automatic (you can click on a spot to send your ship a certain space, but firing and targeting is done for you). The challenge is figuring out which configurations work, and when you can go in guns blazing and when you need to run with your tail between your legs.
It’s super quick and there’s a lot of randomness, but it’s fun. (I heard about it here; Star Control is brought up but the developers say that it was inspired by boardgames. I’ve never played SC myself.)
Gregg, I liked the original Witcher as well. I think my review of it is still somewhere in the archives. But I liked Witcher 2 even better, except for the QTE and the boss fights though the last big one turn out to be no big deal. What I realized I liked the most was that you as the Witcher are being manipulated by several background NPCs at once in a kind of Game of Thrones way. There are layers within layers of intrigue and you are not the center of the universe but just a pawn in a very high stakes game. Still, you are formidable and so people jocky to get you on their side, mostly for safety’s sake as a pissed off Witcher can really ruin your day. Also you are not the only Witcher out there screwing people’s shit up. Story-wise, very entertaining. I’m trying to hold out until they release the Enhanced Edition in early April before I play the second branch but I don’t know if I can.
Acquired: 13 (Wolfenstein, Dear Esther, Alan Wake, AI War, Cities XL 2012, Wargame: European Escalation, The Witcher 2, Ceville, Deus EX Human Revolution Augmented Edition (Plus DLC, but I don’t know if that is just gimmicks or story related), Serious SAM 3 BFE and Serious Sam 2, Insane 2, Saints Row 3: Gangstas in Space)
Completed: Battlefield 3
Score for February: -20
I told myself it was time to stop hoarding, and for one month I didn’t buy anything (other than Osmos for iOS, but I already had that for Windows so it didn’t count!), but then my stupid friend told me that he was just two games behind me on Steam.
The only game I “completed” is BF3, everyone I knew stopped playing it and there is no way in hell I’m playing that on public severs alone. Therefore, I stopped playing it too, and until the new DLC is released I won’t play it.
Wargame was kind of fun, so there is probably a chance that I will finish it. Maybe Wolfenstein and Alan Wake too. Saints Row 3: GIS is just some extra missions so thats a piece of cake.
Dark Souls completed! +1! -4
Ove, my friend, you have some catching up to do!
Congratulations!
I get the same +1 for And Yet It Moves. Doesn’t seem right, does it?
All are equal in the Log’s eyes, Matt… all of us are equally shamed. 🙂
As I pointed out on the AYIM thread, I died more than you did.
FINISHED! Mass Effect 2. Big weekend for Steerpike. -3
I’ve had a pretty dire month as far as the Log is concerned.
Purchased:
Dirt 2 -1
Valentines bundle (for Soulcaster I & II) -2
Alpha bundle (for Towns and Wyv and Keep) -2
Vessel -1
Finished:
Bastion +1
Grand total: -10 (without the alpha games, -8)
Shit.
Just a heads up, I’ll be updating the Log for March this week, so don’t forget to keep a tab of your scores for then.