by moobaa
Here's a list of games I've Com-PETE-d in the abovementioned calendar year.
So - what constitutes "Com-PETE-ion"? All Achievements/Trophies, where available, is a bare minimum; the aim is to fully experience what the game has to offer (from at least an asset perspective). DLC is required in almost all cases - the commitment is to the game as a whole.
Last year I attempted to remove monthly goals from my gaming - previously, I had aimed to Com-PETE up to three games a month. The end result of that was unexpected - I wound up hitting over *four* games a month, and actually ended on one game per week for the year! Unintended, but welcome.
This year? All I want to do is push the average age of The List forward. It's currently 30 May 2014 (with the median at 16 Aug 2016, a difference of 809 days), so getting those two closer together - and closer to the present - would be awesome.
--Pete.
Showing 1-10 of 60 items
(What the hell? Mon Amour doesn't have a page?) Bearing a striking similarity to Flappy Bird's mechanics (though apparently being more directly inspired by a mini-game in Onion Games' Moon), Mon Amour is a one-button action game spread over 50 levels. Each level takes about 10-15 seconds to play, if that, and there's a wealth of "collectibles". But MAN does this pack in the humour! Onion Games really have a *style*, both graphical and narrative, and it totally works. Mon Amour's conceit is that you're trying to "kiss" the character at the end of each level, chaining them up, using them for protection, and rescuing them after every tenth level. But the scraps of "narrative" embedded in the game are hilariously odd, and for the few hours it takes to beat Mon Amour you'll be grinning like a loon. I liked Mon Amour so much that I Com-PETE-d it on both the PC and Switch. Thoroughly recommended!
So - one summer holidays at uni, I borrowed a copy of Myst from the local Apple User's Group. New Year's Eve, being all by my lonesome, I decided to fire it up at about 9pm. At 10pm on New Year's Day, I blearily completed it... and that remains the most intense single-sitting gaming session I've ever done. Obduction didn't quite hit the same heights as Myst, but it was super-compelling while it lasted. Sure, I had to resort to a guide twice (and once again to determine whether something I was contemplating was required or not), but Myst required no guides. Not that there *were* any guides back then. Anyway, Obduction: great story, cringey "acting", mostly satisfying puzzles, and very pretty to look at. Recommended, if you've got some positive Myst memories.
I love music, and I love creative things, but I don't have a creative bone in my body. My digital receipts are littered with the evidence of many musical creation tools, most of which go completely under-used; my old 32-bit iPad hangs around, hoping that one day I'll finally get around to trying out SoundGrid or GlitchMachine. Deep down inside, we know it's not going to happen, but even deeper down inside is a tiny shred of hope. I picked up a nice little Japanese import of Electroplankton (new, and complete with snazzy blue headphones) waaaaay back in the day, hoping that it would facilitate some creative explorations, and driven by the confidence in creator Toshio Iwai's pedigree. In the decade(-plus) since, I'd regularly tinkered with all ten of the Electroplankton within, with easily distracted results. But at the end of 2021, I decided it had to come off The List. I sat down, read all the documentation, looked around for examples of other people's creations, and earnestly tried to compose with my 'plankton. But it's nigh-on impossible to take Electroplankton seriously in the 2020's when you consider the tools that are available on modern phones and tablets; as a creative tool, then, it's defined by the limitations that it inherently applies on the process. And, sadly, those limitations are simply too crunchy to be of benefit. Varvoice is almost anaemic in its sound processing, Trapy & Lumiloop & Sun-Animalcule & Nanocarp have some simple rhythmic elements that become frustrating all-too-soon, and Nanocarp & Marine-Crystals also feel like effort far outweighs the reward. Beatnes has some cool sound sets and rhythms, though, and Luminarrow has the ability to create and manipulate some cool beats. The winner, though, is Hanenbow: undeniably the most fiddly of the Electroplankton, it's also capable of creating some surprisingly complex and satisfying rhythms. It's still possible to see how this would have been an compelling curio at the time of its release... but, in 2022, Electroplankton is pretty hard, and largely unrewarding, work.
Phwoar - this is a great little puzzler. It's pretty straightforward - no guide required to finish it! - and visually stunning, with gorgeous non-Euclidean spaces rendered with striking line art. Moody audio helps the vibe, and it's an addictive experience that was interrupted only by my need to sleep on a puzzle. The "No God Cube" run required for Com-PETE-ion, though? Completely non-trivial, but super satisfying.
I played Outer Wilds on the Xbox back when it was released... after a slow start, it became one of my two favourite games of the last decade (Breath of the Wild being the other). I was thrilled that it won GOTY in 2019, despite Jeff's protestations (though I shudder to think what would've happened if it had been released in 2021 instead). I wanted to throw more money at Mobius Digital, so I picked up Outer Wilds on Steam. And whilst you can only experience the joy of discovery once, it was still super-fun playing through the game again... yes, even flying to the Sun Station. Still one of the best games of the decade. Edit: Oh, what a surprise that Echoes of the Eye doesn't have its own page. That's a massive disservice to a stunning piece of DLC; quite possibly the only DLC I've played that holds its own compared to its original game. Whilst I *really* dislike stealth horror (or stealth hyper-tension), the underlying narrative of Echoes of the Eye is wonderfully weaved into the original, and it's still an incredible experience learning all that is new in the DLC. Utterly gorgeous. Completed both Outer Wilds and Echoes of the Eye on both Xbox and PC... all Achievements, fully filled out ship log, and complete set of endings. Extra credit: the (cheeky) 1/900 run both with and without the lantern(!), and the bonus complete lantern test slideshow reel.
Within fifteen minutes of starting Heaven Will Be Mine, I knew it wasn’t going to be for me. I suspect the target audience for this visual novel are thirty years younger - and a different gender - than I. The science-fiction elements of the narrative(s) were enjoyable, but I felt like I had an allergic reaction to every line of dialogue... eyes rolled, skin crawled. Can totally see how this game would be revered by the right audience, though.
Feeling in the mood for something a little light and fluffy, I decided to fire up Human: Fall Flat to see if it would fit the bill. The floppy rag-doll physics, combined with the sticky-hand mechanic, was certainly silly good fun initially... ...but then came the rest of the game. And I discovered that I never really had faith in the physics model: too often, I spent half-an-hour setting up an elaborate (potential) puzzle solution, only to have that idea scuppered by some squirrelly physical interaction. And that just felt disrespectful of my time, making me want to mainline the game. Still, there were some genuinely fun moments in some of the Achievements, but Com-PETE-ing Human: Fall Flat left me with a "thank god THAT'S over" feeling, rather than "more more MORE!".
Every bit as charming as you've been led to believe, Astro's Playroom is a focussed blast of nostalgia that doesn't outstay its welcome. Not all the unique control methods work - the monkey climbing and ball rolling were a bit of a struggle - but it's still a decent showpiece for the new controller. Time trials were pretty unnecessary, though.
A quality metroidvania, this really shines aesthetically: gorgeous chip(-esque)tunes and pixel art are only really let down by (what felt like a) poorly-weighted second boss. Additionally, there's a bit of a Dark Souls-y recover-your-goodies mechanic when you die, which can be problematic: there's a bunch of chatter online from people who died in a tricky area and essentially trashed their save, since they were unable to recover their hard-earned skills. Save-scumming works, but it definitely is a mechanical shortcoming. Still, it's not too long, brilliantly suited to the Switch, and pretty easy to 100% both the map and collectables. Well worth a punt, if you're in the mood for a metroidvania.
I really enjoyed revisiting The Pathless on the PS5 (after Com-PETE-ing it on the PS4 last year), but I was alarmed at how much *more* jarring the stealth sections felt. They present a massive shift in tone: exploring the world and solving the environmental puzzles is fantastic fun, but to be shoved into a grim and tense stealth environment on a semi-random whim really kills the vibe. So, instead, it became a meta-game to *avoid* those encounters entirely. I faced the bare minimum required to snaffle the required trophy, but thereafter spent ages circumventing that ominous red cloud. Com-PETE-ion objectives: all Trophies, naturally, but I really rinsed the world hunting lanterns, lore, and even the nautilus shells to unlock the little in-game nod to Abzu.