I'm playing through RE6 right now and I'm finding it very hard to keep playing. I genuinely don't like anything about the game so far, especially the gameplay. The long length of chapters is also pretty daunting considering there's 20 of them and I've only finished chapter 2 after 4 hours. Does the game get any better after Leon's campaign? If not, I'm just gonna retire it.

Only 4 new additions and 2 of them were some of the easier ones. At least I was finally able to knock out 41, it was by sheer accident. But now we're in the final 10 (plus 3 bonus). Since we're so close, I don't think I'll actually start playing games specifically for this until December. I'm only going to be finishing 13-1 this month with Prey (unless one of the games has a shitty plot twist).

✅12-2. A game adapted into another medium: Max Payne

✅29. A game with an interesting hook: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

✅41. A game on someone else's Game Challenge 2025 list: Psychonauts (Impi20 #3)

✅50. A Game that prominently features food/cooking: Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater

53/63
1/4 bonus
Collection

✅1. A new game (released within the past year): Sid Meier's Civilization VII
✅2. An old game (released 10+ years ago): Black (19 years-old)
✅3. A really old game (released 20+ years ago): Soulcalibur (1999)
✅4. An ancient game (released 30+ years ago): Frogger (released 1981)
✅5. A time sink (50+ hours): Vampire Survivors
✅6. A quickie (less than an hour): Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing
✅7. A remake or remaster of a game: Gravity Rush Remastered
✅8. A game with 6+ endings: Soulcalibur II
✅9. A collection of games: Assassin's Creed: Ezio Trilogy
✅10-1. A game that’s title starts with a number: 20 Minutes Till Dawn
✅10-2. A game named after the main character: Banjo-Kazooie
✅10-3. A game that starts with the letter Q or Z: Quake III Arena
✅11. A game from a genre you don’t normally play: Elite Beat Agents (Rhythm Games)
✅12-1. A game adapted from another medium: Sam & Max: Hit the Road
✅12-2. A game adapted into another medium: Max Payne
❌13-1. A game with a short title (4 letters or less)
✅13-2. A game with a long title (8+ words or a word with 13+ letters): Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? - Make the Grade
✅14-1. A game with over 1k completions: Vampyr
✅14-2. A game with under 100 completions: Just Dance 2014 (87 now)
✅14-3. A game with no recorded completion times: Family Feud (2020)
✅15-1. A game you previously retired or shelved: Assassin's Creed
❌15-2. A replay
✅16. A game that’s been a Game of the Month: Disco Elysium (December 2021)
✅17. A game chosen by the HLTB randomizer: Konami Classics Volume 1
✅18. A game with a real or fictional religion: Call of Juarez (Christianity)
✅19-1. A “threequel” (third part of the series): Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
✅19-2. A spin-off: Resident Evil Code: Veronica X
✅20. A cornerstone of gaming culture: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
✅21. A game where you play as an anti-hero or villain: Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
✅22. A game heavily featuring zombies: Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army
❌23. A game that hasn't aged well
✅24. An indie game: Sludge Life
✅25-1. A game that takes place after a timeskip (5+ years): Assassin's Creed: Revelations
❌25-2. A game that takes place at the same time as another game in the series
✅26. A sequel that's more famous than the original: Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge
✅27. A game that has no business being in its series: Metroid: Other M
✅28. A game from a franchise that rarely gets new games: inFAMOUS: Second Son
✅29. A game with an interesting hook: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
✅30-1. A game with a great plot twist: Bugsnax
❌30-2. A game with a bad plot twist
✅31-1. The definitive edition of a game (or GOTY edition, Ultimate Edition, Deluxe edition, etc.): Neverwinter Nights - Enhanced Edition
✅31-2. The base game version of a game with several DLCs or Editions: Warhammer Vermintide II
✅32-1. A platform exclusive: Elebits (Wii)
✅32-2. A game available on 7+ platforms: Super Contra
✅33. A game you beat to 100% completion: Astro Bot
❌34. A game that started a long-running franchise (7+ games)
✅35. A recent (within the last 5 years) game in a long-running franchise (7+ games): Final Fantasy XVI
✅36. A game that's smaller than 100MB: Daytona USA
✅37. A game that won any category in the SPIKE Video Game awards or the Game Awards hosted by Geoff Keighley: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Best PS3 Game)
❌38. A game that made it out of Development Hell (5+ years)
✅39. A game where the characters speak a language you don't understand (can be real or fictional): Banjo-Tooie
✅40. A game with a memorable soundtrack: Halo: Combat Evolved
✅41. A game on someone else's Game Challenge 2025 list: Psychonauts (Impi20 #3)
✅42. A game with a female protagonist: Going Under
❌43. A Game inspired by Mythology or Folklore
✅44. A Game inspired/based on real world historical events: The Saboteur
✅45. A game developed by a single person: Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons
❌46. A fanmade/bootleg/rom hack game
✅47. A game that won or was a finalist for a Steam Award: Balatro
✅48. A game with a silent protagonist: LEGO Batman: The Videogame
❌49-1. A game that features time travel
✅49-2. A game that features space travel: Mouthwashing
✅50. A Game that prominently features food/cooking: Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater

Bonus Challenges:

❌A replay on a harder difficulty than your first playthrough
❌A replay where you get a different ending from your first playthrough
✅A replay that you finish quicker than your first playthrough: Balatro
❌A replay in new game+

Huge month for me. I started off finishing Clair Obscur, I finally beat the Max Payne series, and I played a few other games as well.

9/5 Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (PS5): 34:11 8/10
9/10 Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater (PS5): 14:51 8/10
9/16 Psychonauts (Xbox): 12:09 7/10
9/19 Max Payne (Xbox): 10:32 8/10
9/22 Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (Xbox): 6:14 9/10 - BEST
9/24 Max Payne 3 (Xbox 360): 9:39 7/10 - WORST
9/28 South Park: The Stick of Truth (Xbox 360): 9:46 8/10

Unlike most months I have stuff to say about (almost) every game, so let's go down the list.

Clair Obscur was very good, but not a 10/10 like a lot of people are saying, at least not for me. I thought the gameplay could have been a little more varied, and the dungeons were confusing to navigate at times. The game would have seriously benefitted from a mini-map. The story was very engaging and all the characters were very fleshed out. The enemy design all around was very creative. It's not my favorite, but it's still a good game.

Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater was a little disappointing. The original is my favorite game of all time, and I was looking forward to this remake. However, this didn't live up to my expectations. It's pretty much just a 1 to 1 remake of the original, but in the Unreal Engine 5. UE5 was kind of a bad pick for this game, and it makes all the models look a little off. Not to mention, they didn't update the skeletons of the models which causes some actions that looked fine in a PS2 game, to look really weird. Ocelot's reloading is the first example that comes to mind, but there are definitely others. Also why the hell can't you have the classic controls with the new camera? This is MGS3: Subsistence erasure. Finally, bullet drop is really fucking annoying. I never got used to it, and I have no idea why they added it. Bullet drop doesn't exist in any other game in the series, and it doesn't exist in most games period. It was just unnecessary and made shooting people less fun. But at the end of the day, it's still MGS3 so it's still a good game.

Psychonauts is game 1 of 2 I have nothing to say about.

Max Payne is a game I started all the way back in 2020, and it was one of the first games I bought and registered on my account. I stopped playing originally because I got stuck at the beginning of ACT III (if you know you know), but back in 2023 I decided I wanted to beat it and the entire series. So I bought all three games for Xbox/Xbox 360, and proceeded to not touch them for 2 years. But now I've finally beaten it. The game is great, bullet time is a really fun mechanic. Max Payne as well is a very well-written character and has some amazing internal monologues. Sam Lake's smug grin is really funny, and somehow doesn't take you out of the experience at all. Only real bad parts were the baby blood mazes, and the restaurant fire. Both of them are just a bunch of trial and error bullshit. The brightness is also way too dark, there were plenty of times I had a hard time seeing what was in front of me.

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne, was a game I had lower expectations for due to it's short length. To my surprise however, this game is better than the first one. The gameplay has been improved, and they even added some cool matrix moves during bullet time. The story is very well written, and I enjoyed watching Max grow closer to Mona. But the ending is what brings it all together. Max's final line is the perfect closer to the series and tips it over to a 9/10 for me.

Max Payne 3 exists and I dislike that fact. Max Payne 2 was the perfect place to end things, and what does this game do? Pretends it didn't happen outside of one line of dialogue. The tone is completely wrong for a Max Payne game. 1 and 2 are like Noir's and this one's an action movie. But it's not the kind of action movie that makes money, this shit's a modern Travolta flick. The gameplay at the very least is pretty decent, but it plays more like GTA then Max Payne. This whole thing feels like a linear GTA game. Even when they try the Max Payne's internal dialogues, it never hits the same. They replaced all the carefully crafted metaphors with quick and sloppy similes. I can't in good faith give it a score under 7/10 because the gameplay was fun at times and I was never bored, but I don't like that it exists.

South Park: The Stick of Truth is another game I don't have much to say about. It was funny, I liked all the references to the show, but the gameplay was nothing special.

Now in October I'm doing a Resident Evil marathon for all the game's in my backlog I haven't finished. I already finished RE4 Remake, and I'm currently going through it's DLC.

I nominate Resident Evil 4 (2023). The original has won before, but that was several years before the remake released. If that doesn't count I'll nominate Resident Evil 6.

Been about 4 months. I did worse than usual last try, but hopefully things'll go better this time.

Page 1: Clair Obscur: Expidition 33, Portal 2, Portal, Metal gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, Hades, Half-Life 2, Tomb Raider (2013), BioShock
Page 2: Undertale, Doom (2016), Resident Evil 2 (2019), Fallout: New Vegas, Left 4 Dead 2, Disco Elysium, Terraria, BioShock Infinite, Balatro
Page 3: Little Nightmares, Doom Eternal, Half-Life
Page 4: Dishonored, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Resident Evil 3 (2020)
Page 5: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Vampire Survivors, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Dishonored 2, Silent Hill 2 (2024)
Page 6: Detroit: Become Human, Resident Evil 4, GRIS
Page 7: Sid Meier's Civilization VI, Wolfenstein: The New Order, Limbo, Hotline Miami
Page 8: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Inscryption, Final Fantasy VII, Slay the Spire
Page 9: Final Fantasy XVI, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Assassin's Creed, Beyond: Two Souls, Deus Ex: mankind Divided, Warhammer: Vermintide 2
Page 10: Bayonetta, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, Super Mario Odyssey
Page 11: Psychonauts, Lego Batman: The Videogame
Page 12: Metal Gear Solid, L.A. Noire, Doom: The Dark Ages, Metal Gear Rising: Revengence
Page 13: Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Deathloop, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Page 14: Left 4 Dead, Spec Ops: The Line, Papers, Please
Page 15: Doki Doki Literature Club!, Dead Space 2, The Wolf Among Us, Deus Ex, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Page 16: Astro Bot, Hitman 3
Page 17: XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Resident Evil: Revelations, Hitman: Absolution, Heavy Rain, Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Page 18: Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, Mass Effect, SUPERHOT, Minecraft
Page 19: Plants vs. Zombies, A Short Hike, Doom
Page 20: Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
Page 21: Half-Life: Opposing Form, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Half-Life: Blue Shift, Helltaker, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Page 22: The Forgotten City, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
Page 23: Hitman (2016), Dead Space
Page 24: Aperture Desk Job, Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition, Vampyr, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Page 25: The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, The Stanley Parable, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Fallout Shelter
Page 26: HUE, Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Page 27: Max Payne
Page 28: God of War, Hitman 2 (2018)
Page 29: Dear Esther, Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Page 30: Call of Duty: Black Ops, Sunset Overdrive, Hitman: Blood Money
Page 31: Lego Jurassic World, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, Lego Marvel Superheroes 2, Severed Steel
Page 32: Mouthwashing
Page 33: Half-Life: Source
Page 34: Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, Sid Meier's Civilization IV
Page 35: Oxenfree, Shovel Knight
Page 36: Metroid Dread, Orwell
Page 37: Postal 2
Page 38: STRIKE 1
Page 39: Valkyria Chronicles, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, ULTRAKILL
Page 40: Going Under, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Page 41: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
Page 42: Dead Space 3
Page 43: Neon White, Braid
Page 44: DUSK
Page 45: STRIKE 2
Page 46: STRIKE 3

Made it to page 44 before 2 pages of nothing. Much better than last time!

Just started the game today, and I got as far as saving the blue psychotic kid's brain. I'm liking the game well enough, it's like a 7/10 so far. I think it does a good job of showing what bastards children can be. The platforming is also fine, nothing spectacular yet. I'm guessing the game gets better, otherwise I doubt it would have the reputation it has today.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Yeah, that’s right.

I agree. It's still good, but not a masterpiece.

I'm definitely doing this one as soon as I'm finished with MGS Delta; it looks really good!

I finished Clair Obscur yesterday after getting all but one of the expedition logs. I didn't feel like grinding to max level to fight Simon. The game has great narrative and interesting gameplay, but it never really gets better than an 8/10 for me. I feel like there needed to be more to do than just exploring and fighting. Also the game desperately needs a mini-map. I got lost so much just because a lot of areas look the same when you're inside them. I think the game is undoubtedly great, but not a masterpiece like everyone's been saying.

A few more challenges beaten this month. Probably a record low, at least for the year. I'm gonna need to start playing games specifically for the challenge if I want the platinum.

✅16. A game that’s been a Game of the Month: Disco Elysium (December 2021)

✅22. A game heavily featuring zombies: Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army

✅45. A game developed by a single person: Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons

49/63
1/4 bonus
Collection

✅1. A new game (released within the past year): Sid Meier's Civilization VII
✅2. An old game (released 10+ years ago): Black (19 years-old)
✅3. A really old game (released 20+ years ago): Soulcalibur (1999)
✅4. An ancient game (released 30+ years ago): Frogger (released 1981)
✅5. A time sink (50+ hours): Vampire Survivors
✅6. A quickie (less than an hour): Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing
✅7. A remake or remaster of a game: Gravity Rush Remastered
✅8. A game with 6+ endings: Soulcalibur II
✅9. A collection of games: Assassin's Creed: Ezio Trilogy
✅10-1. A game that’s title starts with a number: 20 Minutes Till Dawn
✅10-2. A game named after the main character: Banjo-Kazooie
✅10-3. A game that starts with the letter Q or Z: Quake III Arena
✅11. A game from a genre you don’t normally play: Elite Beat Agents (Rhythm Games)
✅12-1. A game adapted from another medium: Sam & Max: Hit the Road
❌12-2. A game adapted into another medium
❌13-1. A game with a short title (4 letters or less)
✅13-2. A game with a long title (8+ words or a word with 13+ letters): Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? - Make the Grade
✅14-1. A game with over 1k completions: Vampyr
✅14-2. A game with under 100 completions: Just Dance 2014 (87 now)
✅14-3. A game with no recorded completion times: Family Feud (2020)
✅15-1. A game you previously retired or shelved: Assassin's Creed
❌15-2. A replay
✅16. A game that’s been a Game of the Month: Disco Elysium (December 2021)
✅17. A game chosen by the HLTB randomizer: Konami Classics Volume 1
✅18. A game with a real or fictional religion: Call of Juarez (Christianity)
✅19-1. A “threequel” (third part of the series): Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
✅19-2. A spin-off: Resident Evil Code: Veronica X
✅20. A cornerstone of gaming culture: Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
✅21. A game where you play as an anti-hero or villain: Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood
✅22. A game heavily featuring zombies: Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army
❌23. A game that hasn't aged well
✅24. An indie game: Sludge Life
✅25-1. A game that takes place after a timeskip (5+ years): Assassin's Creed: Revelations
❌25-2. A game that takes place at the same time as another game in the series
✅26. A sequel that's more famous than the original: Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge
✅27. A game that has no business being in its series: Metroid: Other M
✅28. A game from a franchise that rarely gets new games: inFAMOUS: Second Son
❌29. A game with an interesting hook
✅30-1. A game with a great plot twist: Bugsnax
❌30-2. A game with a bad plot twist
✅31-1. The definitive edition of a game (or GOTY edition, Ultimate Edition, Deluxe edition, etc.): Neverwinter Nights - Enhanced Edition
✅31-2. The base game version of a game with several DLCs or Editions: Warhammer Vermintide II
✅32-1. A platform exclusive: Elebits (Wii)
✅32-2. A game available on 7+ platforms: Super Contra
✅33. A game you beat to 100% completion: Astro Bot
❌34. A game that started a long-running franchise (7+ games)
✅35. A recent (within the last 5 years) game in a long-running franchise (7+ games): Final Fantasy XVI
✅36. A game that's smaller than 100MB: Daytona USA
✅37. A game that won any category in the SPIKE Video Game awards or the Game Awards hosted by Geoff Keighley: Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Best PS3 Game)
❌38. A game that made it out of Development Hell (5+ years)
✅39. A game where the characters speak a language you don't understand (can be real or fictional): Banjo-Tooie
✅40. A game with a memorable soundtrack: Halo: Combat Evolved
❌41. A game on someone else's Game Challenge 2025 list
✅42. A game with a female protagonist: Going Under
❌43. A Game inspired by Mythology or Folklore
✅44. A Game inspired/based on real world historical events: The Saboteur
✅45. A game developed by a single person: Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons
❌46. A fanmade/bootleg/rom hack game
✅47. A game that won or was a finalist for a Steam Award: Balatro
✅48. A game with a silent protagonist: LEGO Batman: The Videogame
❌49-1. A game that features time travel
✅49-2. A game that features space travel: Mouthwashing
❌50. A Game that prominently features food/cooking

Bonus Challenges:

❌A replay on a harder difficulty than your first playthrough
❌A replay where you get a different ending from your first playthrough
✅A replay that you finish quicker than your first playthrough: Balatro
❌A replay in new game+

Pretty decent month for me in terms of completions. I finished the A-Z Challenge early in the month so I was free to play a few other games I'd been wanting to get to. There were no bad games this month, and I hope that trend continues throughout the year.

8/02 Yoshi's Woolly World (Wii U): 10:50 7/10 -- WORST
8/03 Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army (PC-Steam): 5:18 7/10
8/04 Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2 (PC-Steam): 4:36 7/10
8/05 Zombie Army Trilogy (PC-Steam): 14:54 7/10
8/09 Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons (PS4): 2:11 7/10
8/10 Disco Elysium (PC-Steam): 18:24 8/10 -- BEST
8/13 Slay the Spire (PC-Steam): 20:54 8/10
8/22 Doom: The Dark Ages (PS5): 22:59 8/10

Yoshi's Woolly World is a decent 2D platformer with nice visuals and music. I'm just not really a big 2D platformer guy.

Zombie Army Trilogy was the final game of the A-Z Challenge so I tried to beat that as soon as possible. I ended up having a lot of fun with it, this is probably my favorite 7/10 game. It just feels great to try and rack up a huge combo by headshoting zombies from far away. This was the exact type of game I needed to end that massive challenge.

This is gonna sound weird, but I feel the same about Disco Elysium as I do the movie Gone with the Wind. They both have great writing, visuals, and acting; but I don't agree with them politically. Now, those are two pieces of media that are on the opposite ends of the political spectrum with Disco Elysium being pro-communism and Gone with the Wind being blatant Confederate propaganda, but I still like them both. I also really enjoyed Disco Elysium's gameplay. It was fun investigating the murder and getting closer and closer to the truth. The dice rolls could be really fun or really annoying, Beating the odds and successfully rolling a 20% chance feels great, failing a 90% check does not. I think it's a great game that everyone should check out.

I got addicted to Slay the Spire. The gameplay loop can be really fun. I just got abhorrently unlucky during my ruins. I'd fail to get good cards, run into the hardest bosses, get shit relics, and just stuff like that for 20 hours. Then I got an insane run as the Silent that ended with me being completely overpowered. I'm definitely checking out the sequel when that comes out.

Doom: The Dark Ages is a weird one for me. I started out not liking it, but it grew on me. I think the game focuses way too much on the story. I don't really give a shit about the writer's 40k fanfic, and the game can't make me. I miss when Doom 2016 kept the bigger story in the logs, it allowed for the game to focus on what matters: killing demons. This series strives when it has a simple story. Doom 1: The demons are invading mars, kill 'em. Doom 2: Those fuckers killed our rabbit (and humanity), kill 'em. Doom (2016): THEY'RE INVADING MARS AGAIN, kill 'em. I had this complaint with Doom: Eternal too, but it's much worse here. The mech and dragon levels are also kind of boring and the game would be better off without them. At the end of the day though, the core gameplay is really fun. Not as good as Eternal, but better than 2016.

The thread was hidden at some point, and I can't find it anymore in my post history. Basically the conclusion we came to was that you need to post 500 times and beat 100 games while being active on the site. If you donated back when that was a thing this mitigated the conditions a bit, but I don't think we ever figured out by how much.

I only ever play on harder difficulties if it's a game I've played before, or it's a series I'm familiar with. Most recently I did Doom: The Dark Ages on Ultra-Violence, and I'm planning on playing MGS Delta: Snake Eater at Extreme. I don't see how playing on the highest difficulty would justify the price, it would just make me frustrated.

Been a week since my last post and I'm much farther in the game. I'm at the second axon's dungeon and I'm getting a pretty good grip on the game. I got spoiled on Gustave's death like the day before I got there in the story which pissed me off. Verso's cool though, I like his perfection system. My main team is Maelle, Lune, and Verso. I like the relationship system, it really helps show off these characters. I'm pretty sure the game is setting up that the Paintress is Verso's sister, and that Maelle is some kind clone of her. In fact I also think Verso and Renoir are both clones of the real Verso and Renoir who are actually Visage and the Curator. I could be completely wrong about that, but it's my theory so far. I looked up if this game had multiple endings, and the website I looked at said there's no good endings... so that's ominous. I didn't read further so I don't know what actually happens. My opinion so far is that the game is good, but overhyped. I'm enjoying it, but I don't think it's the greatest game ever made like some people are saying.

My ratings are incredibly inconsistent, and are mostly based on how I'm feeling that day.

10/10: I almost never give this out anymore. For me a 10/10 is a game that has no problems with it, and is fun as hell.

9/10: Amazing games I could never get tired of that have 1 or 2 things wrong with it.

8/10: This one varies between great games that aren't quite good enough to be a 9, and also games that are too good for a 7.

7/10: Games that are decent enough, but not that great. This is where a lot of "junk food" games go.

6/10: These can be boring, but if the game isn't infuriating I'll place it here.

5/10: Games that actively piss me off, but are just barely quality enough.

Now we get into the weird murky zone of bad. I don't really have specific reasons as to why I'll pick a 3 or 4. I don't do it much, and it's always a case-by-case basis.

2/10s are reserved for games that are horrible, but they aren't quite in my bottom 10 games of all time. Sometimes the game doesn't really make me mad, it's just of abhorrent quality.

And of course, the 1/10s are some of the worst most infuriating shit I've ever touched. This is the worst of the worst that should never have been made. I've tried to avoid these games lately,, but sometimes they pop up out of nowhere.

I'll nominate Metal Gear Delta: Snake Eater which releases on Thursday.

I mean, if you're serious about this I'll take you up on it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1601570/The_Alters/

If that's too expensive but you still want to burn your cash on me, then please feel free to pick a cheaper game in my wishlist.

Just started the game today, and I'm about 2 hours in. The battle system is decent, but I'm having a hard time getting into the rhythm for parrying. The opening does a great job at getting you hooked, I was not expecting the thing that happened on the beach. I initially tried playing the game ion French, but then a character with a white shirt showed up, and I realized these subtitles suck ass. They really needed to put a thicker outline on it. The text in general honestly feels too small and hard to read. I am playing on a small TV so maybe it's fine for everyone else, but I haven't had this problem with any other game.

I think you missed the thrust of my question because it affects platinum and the lower trophies differently. No way I'm hitting 50/50 + bonuses for platinum, so my question was whether one of those bonus categories could count towards my 20 for bronze or 35 for silver. Sorry if I was clear as mud.

Oh well in that case yes, it'll count towards silver and bronze.

I didn't see anything in the rules explicitly detailing the rules around the bonuses other than the fact that the same game can be applied to a bonus in addition to a numbered challenge, so to clarify: for the challenge's purposes, does a bonus "count" toward my total even if I don't finish 50/50 numbered challenges? In other words, can the bonus categories be used for someone only targetting the 20 completions for bronze or 35 completions for silver?

That's... a good question. I honestly didn't think that through since the rank system is new this year. It would feel a little weird if Platinum could be complete without all challenges so let's just say completing all the bonuses wins you a free compliment from yours truly. Next year we can figure out an actual solution.

Congratulations on finishing it with lots of time to spare!

I had to laugh at your writing for Metroid Other M. A friend's partner was playing it semi-recently and we were all quoting "THE BABY" in the group chat. And yeah, the excuse to depower Samus pissed me off, especially the nonsense with the Varia Suit, which is purely defensive anyway!

I don't have very much experience with Soul Calibur 1 but I've played the rest of the series to varying degrees. II is my favourite. The series also just feels quite approachable as far as fighting games go too.

especially the nonsense with the Varia Suit, which is purely defensive anyway!

I know right? It's so fucking annoying. I have no idea why they didn't just do the usual and have the first boss throw her around a little.

The series also just feels quite approachable as far as fighting games go too.

I think that's why I like it so much. You don't have to memorize a billion combos like in Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter. I honestly think 1 has tighter gameplay than 2, but 2 does undeniably have the better roster.

I'm new to this challenge, and starting over halfway through the challenge is going to be interesting.

I have one quick question though, is there any rules on using the same game for multiple challenges?

You can only use a game for 1 challenge, but you are allowed to use it for one of the four bonuses as well.

After 8 months and 385 hours, the A-Z Challenge has come to a close. I didn't enjoy it as much this time, but I think that's because there were a lot more 6 and 7 out of 10s this time around. Last year had higher highs and lower lows which made it a fun rollercoaster. But what were the best and worst games? Let's find out.

Also Dark Souls II is out of the running since I played so little of it before retiring.



25. Metroid: Other M

In dead last is Metroid: Other M and it isn't close. Before this ranking I did a tier list to get my thoughts in order and this was the only one that made F-tier. The gameplay isn't the worst, but the story is. I don't call things sexist often, but the portrayal of Samus in this game is extremely sexist. The fact that she can't do shit unless Malkovich approves it is both a shit way of resetting Samus' power from the last game, and a decision that takes away most of her agency. The voice acting is also famously bland. You'd think Samus should sound like Ripley from Alien, her direct inspiration, but instead we get a bored delivery that constantly says The Baby. While the moment-to-moment gameplay is fine, there are several sections where you need to be in first person that get very annoying. This is the worst Metroid game by far, and I don't recommend anyone play it.



24. Banjo-Tooie

I was debating whether or not to put this here or in the next spot, but ultimately this game just bored the shit out of me. I wasn't the biggest fan of the last game, but it was decent enough. This one tried to be bigger and grander. The game starts out good, the first few worlds are great. Then the dinosaur world happens, and the game nosedives. The worlds start getting way too big with no map, the Jiggies get harder to find, and going between Mumbo and Wumba's huts becomes a pain in the ass. I think if they had stuck to something smaller like the first game, and just improved upon that then this would be much better. The writing is also a little lazier when it comes to comedy. Most of the jokes are just 4th-wall breaks. It works a few times, but it misses more often than not. I just got sick of playing this, but decided to trudge along anyway. I understand some people might love this game if it was part of their childhood, but it was not part of mine.



23. Vampyr

This game is kind of sad because at it's core, I can see a good game. The issue is that it's buried under a bunch of bullshit. There's a lot of problems with this game, but the biggest ones have to be a lack of fast-travel and the long-ass loading screens. While this may not be the biggest open-world game, it's still a relatively large map so no fast-travel means you'll be walking a while to get from place to place. To add some insult to injury, barely anything is labeled on the in-game map so you just have to guess based on where the few labeled things are. If they just labeled towns and landmarks, it wouldn't be nearly as annoying to get around. The loading screens in this game can last up to a minute and a half, and I have no idea why. This isn't a particularly graphics heavy game and unlike say Fallout 4, there aren't thousands of entities being loaded at once. The NPC mechanics of choosing who lives or dies sounds interesting, but it ultimately doesn't affect much. Levelling up can also be kind of grindy if you don't want to kill too many NPCs since combat gives barely any exp. This game has potewntial and I feel some of the bigger issues could be fixed with updates, but that didn't happen.



22. Odama

This is the last game I consider bad, and it's one of the two I retired this time around. Odama is a pinball game set in feudal Japan that is controlled with the Gamecube microphone. Sounds like an interesting concept, but in the end it's just kind of a clusterfuck that doesn't come together well. The goal is to have your army push to the gate at the end of the battlefield, but you end up just killing a lot of your men with the ball. Even when your doing well, the men can lose morale and refuse to listen to your commands. I have no idea how to fix that, and it's actually what made me quit the game. Maybe a re-release could fix some issues, but the Gamecube original is just kind of annoying to play.



21. Just Dance 2014

What do you want me to say? It's a dance game and that's it. It has better motion detection than the first game, but I like the song selection of 4 more. It's fine.



20/19. Pushmo/ Lego Batman: The Videogame

I've grouped these two together since I don't have strong thoughts on either of them. They're both tolerable 7/10 games kids games. I mean a kid would probably throw his 3DS at the wall from how hard Pushmo can be, but that's it's intended audience. These were both games I just sort of got through so I could continue the challenge.



18. Elebits

I had zero expectations going into Elebits, and I was pleasantly surprised. I did not expect it to be a first-person shooter. The goal is to shoot the Elebits so they stop causing havoc, and you have a certain amount of time to find them in a particular location. Almost every object in this game has physics, and the Wii is really being pushed to it's limits. Thankfully as far as I remember the game never crashed, but it did lag. There was also a Silent Hill 4: The Room reference in the theme park level which I found funny since it definitely spooked some poor 5-year old. The story is barely there, but I'd argue it doesn't really need to be for this type of game. The only truly annoying part was the occasional fail conditions like "don't break x amount of objects" or "don't go over x decibels". The decibel one especially was annoying since it was inconsistent. This is a decent early Wii game, and I hope it eventually gets a sequel.



17. Yoshi's Woolly World

Since the review wasn't too long ago, I'll keep this brief. It's a decent 2D platformer that makes use of the yarn mechanics well. I don't really like 2D platformers so it goes down here.



16. Warhammer: Vermintide 2

This was my first Warhammer game, and it's decent. The game's a Left 4 Dead rip-off, but it's much better than the previous game. There's a larger variety of objectives and enemies which makes things more enjoyable. The increased customization allows for more playstyles, but I ended up sticking with Saltzpyre's default class. I can see why some people like this, but it's not really my thing.



15. Resident Evil Code: Veronica X

This is another one I was debating on whether it should go here or a spot up, but then I remembered the moths. Code Veronica is a weird game that released after RE3, but before REmake. It's in 3D, but doesn't have the improvements of the next game. I think the game peaks on the island with some classic Resident Evil puzzles, a mysterious villain, Wesker for some reason, and Claire providing a link to the previous games. Once we fly to Antarctica, things start going downhill. This new map isn't that interesting, and the limited space makes dodging zombies a pain in the ass. Then we switch to Chris and Hunters get introduced which just causes some annoying parts. I've also heard of people getting softlocked, and I can definitely see that. There's several parts where the game gives you a checkpoint at the start of a boss fight which sounds good, but in a game like Resident Evil, you can run out of ammo fast. If you don't have a save before that you're fucked. This game is decent for early Resident Evil, but it pails in comparison to the series after this point.



14. The Saboteur

The Saboteur is a decent enough open-world game that would be much better if you could fast-travel. That is really the biggest negative in this game. I liked the story, I thought the art direction was cool, and WW2 France is a really unique setting. At the end of the day though, an open-world this big without fast-travel cannot rise above a 7/10. Besides that, the gunplay could be improved a bit. If you could carry more than two weapons it would be a lot more fun. The driving could also occasionally feel a little clunky which isn't great when our main character was a racecar driver. I don't think this game needs a sequel like other people do, but it was still a decent time.



13. Quake III: Arena

I was a little let down by this one. I was hoping for an improved Quake II, but the story is just a bunch of multiplayer matches with bots. Don't get me wrong, the gameplay is still fun, but not having a true level-based campaign is disappointing. Ultimately while I wish it had better singleplayer content, it's still a good game.



12. inFamous: Second Son

Of the two inFamous games I've played, Second Son is the weakest. That doesn't mean it's bad though, the different powers were fun to mess around with. I liked Delsin's relationship with his brother and the other conduits. I do wish the main villain was more comically evil instead of having a motivation that makes absolutely no sense. The open world felt a little shallow compared to inFamous 1, and the districts were less satisfying to unlock. The game's a solid 7/10, but not a great follow-up to it's predecessors.



11. Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge

I don't remember this game as much as some of the others, probably because I was having a rough week when I played it, but I do remember liking the gameplay. Dogfights in videogames can be really fun. The alt-history setting was also interesting to explore. I wish I played the first game before this so I could experience more of the world. Also, Arizona is in this game so it immediately gets some bonus points.



10. Going Under

Going Under is a rogue-like about an intern at a soda company in a world where start-ups turn into dungeons when they go under. The gameplay could be pretty fun with the wide variety of weapons and skills. It felt good to get more powerful as the dungeons went on. The writing did a good job of combining comedy with a pretty good story about capitalism and corporate greed. My only real complaint is that there are too many useless skills that can clog up the skill pool. It was always disappointing going to a skill room and seeing "Yeet" which just makes Jackie say yeet when she throws something.



9. Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Another Uncharted game, another good time. Sully's back after his absence in the last game, and he's great. The gameplay is also solid as usual. The story reveals a lot about Drake's history, and the story is more personal to him than ever. This isn't just another treasure, it's the one that got away. That being said, a lot of the characters say drake is obsessed with finding Francis Drake's secret, but Drake is acting pretty normal in the cutscenes. The game doesn't really give a sense that Drake is any more obsessed with this than he was with the treasure in the last two games. I've also got to admit that the gameplay is getting a little stale in this series. I wish they would introduce something to mix it up. The game's undoubtedly good, but it's the weakest of the series in my opinion.



8. Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Trilogy

Assassin's Creed II is an amazing game. It needs to be studied how a sequel could improve upon the previous game so much. But unfortunately my save file got corrupted and I had to retire it. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is just kind of a rehash of the second game. While I like how much of a shithead Ceasre is, the story isn't nearly as interesting as 2. In that one Ezio was thrust into this assassin lifestyle by yet unseen forces, but by Brotherhood he's already done all this shit and has to push through way less adversity. The side-content just wasn't all that compelling either. 2 had Altair's armor, the hidden symbols revealing the truth of the Templars, and the maps revealing the codex. This one just has nothing. Revelations is the final game of the package, and I'm mixed on it. I like the stuff with Ezio in Constantinople, but I hated the Altair side of the game. The voice acting on Altair is just so much worse than first game. Sure, it didn't make sense for this middle-eastern man to have an American accent, but you could've just told Philip Shahbaz to put on an accent. Why the hell did you get a new guy that does a high-pitched nerd voice? It doesn't fit Altair at all. Desmond is busy being in a coma during all this, so we don't get a conclusion to his story. I love Assassin's Creed 2, and it's the sole reason this game is so high.



7. Zombie Army Trilogy

Okay this one might admittedly be recency bias, but I just found this game more fun than all the previous ones on the list. I know it's objectively worse than a few of them, but I never get sick of headshotting Nazi Zombies. There's not much more to this placement than that, I just really love the slowmo x-ray shots.



6. Konami Classics vol.1

By Konami Classics vol.1, I mean Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Frogger and Super Contra barely matter when discussing this package. Before Symphony of the Night, the only games in the Castlevania series I had played were the original, Rondo of Blood, and Lament of Innocence. From this I can see what a major improvement this is over the previous games, and how the later games tried to emulate it's style. I didn't like Symphony of the Night at first, it just didn't click with me. Then I started exploring Dracula's Castle more and I started really getting into it. I fought the optional bosses, I visited hidden areas, and I made sure to get Alucard's shield. I only have two problems with the game, but they're pretty minor. The first is that the map is pretty bad, nothing is labeled which can lead to you getting lost easily. The other is just that I think the game goes on a little too long. Inverted Castle was neat at first, but then it just kept going. Still, the moment-to-moment gameplay was consistently fun and I enjoyed my time with it.



5. Halo: Combat Evolved

I really enjoyed this one. This game does something rare and mixes fun gameplay with a great story. Master Chief and Cortana are a great team, and I want to see more of them. The score is amazingly memorable and grand. Maybe too grand, it does drown out voices in a game with no subtitles. I would love to play more games in this series, and I fully intend to play Halo 2 before the year is out.



4. Soulcalibur

I normally don't like fighting games, but something about Soulcalibur is just really fun. It doesn't have a complex story, but I just really like playing it. I even got a second Dreamcast controller so I can play with friends. I beat Soulcalibur II last week, and I just got Soulcalibur III so maybe this time next year I'll have beaten them all.



3. Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition

What a game. It recreates Dungeons and Dragons in videogame form. The story is fine, but I loved the gameplay. The biggest problem with this game is that it does a bad job telling you what level the enemies are. I didn't have a problem with most enemies, but then part 4 hit me like a truck, and at this point there were no more sidequests. I want to dive into the sequel, but I've heard the enhanced edition kind of sucks so I need to get my disc drive fixed first.



2. Final Fantasy XVI

The newest numbered Final Fantasy game. The story is grand, and full of rich, complex characters. I absolutely loved it and seeing where it went. The gameplay is just fine. The game's an action-rpg instead of a turn-based one, and it gets pretty repetitive. The main issue is that Clive only has a few standard moves. If there were things like unlockable combos it would be more interesting. Every battle just went the same, even the bosses. Potions are also in large supply so there's not a whole lot of challenge. I did like the cinematic moments in the boss fights, but the non-cinematic parts were just a little boring. But man, it is worth it for that rich story.



1. XCOM: Enemy Unknown

I new as soon as I played it that this was my favorite. XCOM is Fire Emblem with guns and aliens, and that speaks to me. I stayed up till 3am playing this once, and I want to get Enemy Within so I can play it again. I can't believe nobody told me just how good this game is, you bastards! Sure the performance may not be great, sure the hit percents can be inaccurate, but I love this game and it is my favorite of the challenge this year.

Looking Forward:

The challenge went on for a long time this year. The total time this year was 385 hours, while last year it was only 321 hours. Add on that I was just generally busier, and it took nearly 3 more months. I'm fairly certain next year will be even longer, especially for V, X, and Y since I only have 30 hour long games for those. I ran some numbers on what next year's challenge might look like with my current backlog.

The worst case scenario will take 1,551 hours. At 3 hours a day that's 517 days, ending the challenge on 6/1/2027. Luckily the chances of this happening are 26/468 which is 0.06%. The same goes for the minimum time, 205 hours or 68 days ending the challenge on 3/9/2026. But the average time based on what the website says for each letter is 460 hours or 153 days ending the challenge on 6/2/2026. Now, that's 80 more hours than this year's challenge so I have a feeling it will last longer than that. Maybe next year I'll segment the challenge and take a month or two off. I could also rig things by buying some shorter games in the problem letters.

V is now another letter I only own one game for joining Q and Z. It's Valkyria Chronicles 4, a 37 hour long game. The game's I plan on buying for Q and Z are Quake 4 and Zombie Army 4: Dead War. As for the year after that, I'm not sure. I think I'll probably do Quantum Break for Q, but other than that I've got nothing. Z is a little more fortunate, the Zero Escape Series is what I have my sights on, and after that maybe Zombies Ate my Neighbor. I think I might eventually either turn these letters into wildcards that could be any letter, or a turn to roll games that start with numbers.

Unlike last year, I'm not doing a second challenge so I'm free to play whatever I want until 1/1/26. I probably won't post on this blog again this year unless I find a game I want to do a review on. I'm worried that next year's challenge will go into September or October since I'll likely be even busier next year, but it remains to be seen.

Today on Finnedorb…

A-Z Challenge



Zombie Army Trilogy (PC-Steam): 14:54

Episode 1: Get the Hell out of Berlin

In the final days of WW2, Hitler releases his plan Z as a desperate last attack. A curse raises the dead all over Germany. These aren’t just zombies, they’re Nazi Zombies. You play as Karl Fairburne, the world’s greatest sniper who’s killed thousands of Nazis across 5 different games… or you can play as Nick from Left 4 Dead 2. I played as Nick from Left 4 Dead 2. Nick is joined by Coach, Rochelle, and Ellis who have been hurled into Nazi Germany and are all mute now. Nick is working to try and figure out what’s causing all the Nazi zombies. In a twist that probably surprised at least one person out there, the cause is some ancient relics Hitler dug up. Nick and the gang get a few clues before they escape Berlin by boat. An unseen, raspy voice gives the sinister message of “Buy the sequel”.

The first of the three games in this package was initially released as a stand-alone expansion to Sniper Elite V2. It uses the same gameplay system and maps from that game. I’ve never played Sniper Elite V2 so none of this is reused content for me. First impressions of the gameplay, it’s pretty fun. I enjoyed the slowmo, x-ray shots of my bullets going in and out of the zombies. I was also super addicted to trying to get a high combo. I was unfortunately never able to break 100, but I got close at 96 consecutive kills. In every level, there’s a hidden shotgun called The Preacher. It’s a double-barrel shotgun with pellets that penetrate enemies like a sniper-rifle. You can consistently get 7 in 1 kills with this, and I even went as high as a 13 in 1. Ammo is severely limited so you have to be careful. Besides the basic Nazi Zombies, there’s also Skeletons (presumably also Nazis), Snipers, Suicide Bombers, and Super Elites. Super Elites are a massive pain in the ass whenever they show up as they require around 12-15 headshots to kill. They also have MP40s which can shred through you at close range. Overall, Nazi Zombie Army is pretty good. 7/10.

Episode 2: Fuck You, Go Back to Berlin

The boat stops, and a British Captain contacts Nick via radio. The Brits think they’ve found a potential source of the outbreak, and you have to stop it.Throughout the episode we find pieces of the Sagarmatha Relic. It’s like this stone cylinder thing that kills/controls the zombies (it’s unclear). In the final level, Nick reunites all 3 pieces of the relic, sending up a beam of light that stops the zombies in their tracks. The survivors get out of there on a helicopter as the US blows Berlin to hell with a nuke.

This game introduces 2 new enemy types.Summoners summon zombies, and Fire Demons throw fire. The fire makes zombies fragile, but they do more damage when they run into you.The new enemy variety is nice, and allows for more challenges than just “Here’s another Super Elite, have fun!” The Summoners can be killed easily by just shooting them in the head. The challenge is finding them before they spawn too many enemies. The episode is about on par as the last. 7/10.

Episode 3: Guess Who’s Back

A few months after Berlin was nuked, pockets of survivors have sprung up. This was around the time invading Berlin was really in so we’ve got Americans, Russians, Brits, even some Germans who are pretty fed up with Hitler. This is the only original episode of the pack, and it’s pretty obvious right from the get go. There’s other people in the area that you can talk to. They can give you sidequests, pieces of information, and a third thing. I never did any of the sidequests, but it’s neat that that's an option. We’re sent back to Berlin to help out these survivors. The British Captain from the last two games sends us to an overrun hospital to get some intel. It turns out that Hitler is still around, and he’s gathering his zombies for nefarious purposes. Nick and the gang are sent in to find and put a bullet right through Hitler’s ball, but he uses his psychic powers to stop the bullet. All the zombies turn to face us, but Nick still has the relic so Hitler can’t do shit. It’s times like these that make me wonder how Himmler and Goebbels are doing. Are they sentient zombies like Hitler? Are they mindless goons? The game doesn’t answer these questions. Nick figures out that Hitler has two plans. The first is to use a machine that turns the entire world into a Nazi hivemind, and the other is to perform a ritual using the remains of the most evil people in history to gain the powers of hell, and revive all the dead.

The list includes: Maximilian Robespierre, famous for beheading everyone who looked at him funny; Caligula, a crazed Emperor of Rome who claimed himself a god and killed civilians in the street; Leopold II, a man who subjected the natives of the Congo to slavery and inhumane torture; Elizabeth Bathory, who was a victim of propaganda and didn’t actually kill all those women; Talaat Pasha, who performed an ethnic cleansing of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during WW1; Nero, who despite being declared the anti-christ by the Christain Church, wasn’t nearly as bad as some say; Genghis Kahn who probably does deserve to be here even though he is one of my favorite non-American historical figures; Ivan the Fearsome who is in the same boat as Genghis; Vlad the Impaler who was really just defending his country, let’s be honest; Attila the Hun who I’m pretty sure was popular in Germany at the time so I don’t think Hitler would realistically add him to this; and then there was some christian guy who I can’t remember the name of, and I also can’t find a record of him on the wiki. Well that was one fuck of a run-on sentence. I don’t think most people would have this list when talking about the most evil people in history. To be fair though, Stalin is still alive, Mussolini’s corpse is busy being mutilated in Milan, Mao and Pol Pot aren’t in power yet, and Hitler is the one performing the ritual so he can’t use himself.

With the help of a psychic Nazi who’s hooked into Hitler’s fortress, we destroy the machine. Hitler decides to take care of us himself so he performs the ritual, and becomes a giant, all-powerful version of himself. We retaliate by destroying the corpses of Vlad the Impaler, Nero, and Elizabeth Bathory. This leaves Hitler in a vulnerable state where we finally kill him once and for all (until the next game).
This final episode is probably my least favorite. While I do like the story, the maps just go on for way too long. Most of the maps in this game are pretty long, but this episode especially had hour-long levels almost every time. They also introduce armored zombies which are just a pain in the ass. Unlike the other special enemies, these ones aren’t a fun challenge. They suck every time they show up. Luckily The Preacher penetrates armor, but oftentimes you won’t have that until later in a level.

I liked the trilogy as a whole. The gameplay was always satisfying and fun. I never got tired of shooting Nazi Zombies in the head from really far away. If this was just the last episode, I’d give this a much worse review. 7/10

ALRIGHT WE’RE FINALLY DONE!

Sheesh, that's some commitment. Congrats on being one game away from completing the challenge :)

Thanks, it's been one hell of a bumpy ride. It's zero games now, I finished the trilogy this morning!