What a great triple feature.

Alan Wake 2 is one of my favorite games of the last 5 years and my GOTY for that year. I 100%ed it which isn't something I normally do. Its about to release onto PS Plus and I'm happy to have an excuse to replay it.

Dino Crisis is a game that I never got to play originally. When it came to GOG, I bought it and gave it a shot. I found it a little frustrating with the ammo scarcity and level design. I gave up on it but maybe I'll go back and try again with a guide this time.

I've heard so much positive about Signalis. As a lover of the genre I've been meaning to play through it. I have a copy, just need to give it a shot.

Hey I have been submitting a lot of flash games recently and all of them get approved real fast (thanks for that) but there is just one game that was added incorrectly I think its a dube of an old xbox 360 game https://howlongtobeat.com/game/175276 https://howlongtobeat.com/game/11083 I wanted to submit the 2008 flash game Warlords not the Xbox 360 game the second game Warlods 2 https://howlongtobeat.com/game/175323 was added too can you correct this pls?

Is it good now? I couldn't find any clean art for it.

Site had some performance issues, should be ironed out.

Edit: I lied, will roll back changes.

EDIT 2: Back in business.

EDIT 3: The update that broke the site was tweaked and released again.

This is my 500th post on the HLTB forums and for it I wanted to do something special. (Technically the 501st because I made a blunder.) This year also marks 5 years that I've been on HTLB, (very coincidentally yesterday was also the one year anniversary since I created this blog) and I want to celebrate that. Because HLTB has the best and most positive gaming community I've found online. This goes for the forums as well as the Discord server. On the tracking side of things, it's been so good that I've never felt the need to find something better, I can't say the same thing for the movie/TV show and book tracking sites I use. On top of that the site is always improving, due to Everdred's effort and diligence to listening to the community's feedback. HLTB has impacted my life as well. If it wasn't for HLTB I don't think I would've ever started to review games, movies, TV shows or books. (Who knows, I might start to review more things in the future as well.) It helped me view the media I consume with a critical eye and form opinions for myself. To be specific, I joined HLTB on January 8th of 2020. It took a couple years, but in May 2024 I decided to take the plunge and start reviewing books and movies/tv shows as well. I joined Storygraph and Trakt on May 11th and 12th respectively.

To celebrate, I want to showcase some HLTB stats that aren't directly related to games, starting with the amount of forum posts I've made per year.


It took a couple years before I really got into the forums, the past two years it has gone down slightly, but the reason for that is because I have spent more time on the Discord server instead. I joined it on December 30th of 2024, but really only started actively talking there on May 4th of 2024.


These days I review every game I beat, but it didn't start that way, I slowly developed that habit over time. The first game I reviewed was one I did retroactively which I beat before I created my HLTB account. It was Headliner, which I reviewed on December 19th of 2019. In the first year, I was only reviewing some of the games I beat, I have no idea why I was being selective about it. However that changed after my review of Game Dev Tycoon on December 22nd 2020, after which I've reviewed every game I've beaten since, with only a few special exceptions. The first book I reviewed was Assassin's Quest On June 18th 2024, about a month after I created my Storygraph account. My first movie/tv show review took until September 16th 2024 and it was a review of the first Ranma 1/2 movie, Big Trouble in Nekonron.

The reviews I write per year, depends on how many games, movies/tv shows and books I manage to consume in a year. However since I created this blog, I've also started to create reviews for games when I haven't strictly beaten them, like separate reviews for each arc of Higurashi and reviews for Fortnite seasons. In total I've written 157 game reviews, 29 movie/tv show reviews and 23 book reviews. The total number of reviews I've written is currently stands at 209.


Recently I've also started to keep track of what my longest reviews, in general as well as per media type.
Games: Persona 4 Golden (956 words, 5218 characters) -> Higurashi: Tsumihoroboshi (1505 words, 8783 characters) -> Fortnite Ch6 S3: Super (1795 words, 9987 characters)
Movies/Shows: Ranma 1/2 2011 Live Action special (1444 words, 7966 characters) -> Squid Game S3 (1811 words, 9896 characters)
Books: Ranma 1/2 Volume 34 (1054 words, 5971 characters) -> Ranma 1/2 Volume 36 (1184 words, 6564 characters) -> Republic of Thieves (1396 words, 7782 characters)

I also checked what my longest review was for each year per category.
Longest Game Reviews each Year:
2019: Headliner (29 words, 157 characters) - A technicality, because it's also the only review I wrote that year.
2020: The Henry Stickmin Collection (217 words, 1156 characters)
2021: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice (260 words, 1362 characters)
2022: Super Mario Bros. (427 words, 2285 characters)
2023: Super Mario 3D All-Stars (925 words, 4962 characters)
2024: Higurashi: Tsumihoroboshi (1505 words, 8783 characters)
2025: Fortnite Ch6 S3: Super (1795 words, 9987 characters)

Longest Book Reviews each Year:
2024: Ranma 1/2 Vol. 36 (1184 words, 6564 characters)
2025: Republic of Thieves (1396 words, 7782 characters)

Longest Movie Reviews each Year:
2024: Ranma 1/2 2011 Live Action special (1444 words, 7966 characters)
2025: Squid Game S3 (1811 words, 9896 characters)

I like pushing myself and seeing if I can break my record. The ones that end up doing it have been the ones I least expect, like the Ch6 S3 review. But it isn't only the record breaking reviews that have been increasing in length. I knew the average review length was increasing, but I didn't realize the rate it was increasing at. The first 5 years it was pretty consistent, growth at around 50 words per year. but after that, a switch must've flipped and the rate of increase quadrupled. I'm wondering when the length of my reviews will plateau.


That's the last of the stats I wanted to share for this celebration. I've loved the 5 years I've spent in this community and here's to hoping that the next 5 years I spend in this community, will be just as positive and amazing.

Great post, really fun insights. Thanks for your contributions!

Site Update:

General
- User statistics have been updated to count unique game/platform combinations. Completing the same game 100 times on the same platform will count as 1 game completion. You can still see your total playthrough counts, etc. on the bottom of the list.
- Top 50 lists have been refreshed, all other profiles will be recalculated on next game action.

Search
- Increased font size on the search box to prevent iOS devices from zooming in. (No idea how this changed again)

Stats
- Category headers will now remain on the top of each category as you scroll through them.

Please provide all feedback in the official feedback thread.

Site Update:

General
- User statistics have been updated to count unique game/platform combinations. Completing the same game 100 times on the same platform will count as 1 game completion. You can still see your total playthrough counts, etc. on the bottom of the list.
- Top 50 lists have been refreshed, all other profiles will be recalculated on next game action.

Search
- Increased font size on the search box to prevent iOS devices from zooming in. (No idea how this changed again)

Stats
- Category headers will now remain on the top of each category as you scroll through them.

How to propose a game cover?

I think this thread's a good demonstration that some of the site's features maybe aren't as obvious as they should be. Maybe a pinned FAQ thread would be a good idea? We've got a pinned message about this exact thing on the discord's site-help channel. Wouldn't it be a good idea for that info to be available on the site itself as well?

Edit: Scrolled up and saw that ThomasE also suggested the exact same thing o7

That was by design so I'm not overwhelmed with submissions. I go through 200+ game edits and 50 brand new games a day.

Its not random and it's not manually selected. There are multiple ways to obtain it and Finnedorb basically figured it out at one point, earning him a (sarcastic) "Unloved" custom badge.

The only series that come to mind are Mirror's Edge, Halo and SOMA. I've beaten SOMA on every platform, some multiple times. Mirror's Edge around 10 times and for me, Halo 2, Infinite and Reach never get old.

I see, I'm guessing I didn't check enough of the games I submitted. I guess it's also hard to know if the value changed unless you manually track it.
The time entry seems to show in the completions tab so I'm guessing it works fine.

For the reviews though, they don't seem to appear, is it the same situation?

Reviews do require your submission to be of "approved" status. I've actually been on vacation for the last 9 days so that's why you've seen such a delay. This is not normally the case, usually its < 24 - 36 hours.

Site Update:

User Profile
- Blog component will now have a "Last Page" arrow link to skip to the last page of the blog.

Platforms & Storefronts
- PICO-8 has been added as a platform.
- Meta Quest+ has been renamed to Meta Horizon+

General
- Site cookie is now valid for 28 days instead of 14.

Please submit all feedback in the official feedback thread.

Site Update:

User Profile
- Blog component will now have a "Last Page" arrow link to skip to the last page of the blog.

Platforms & Storefronts
- PICO-8 has been added as a platform.
- Meta Quest+ has been renamed to Meta Horizon+

General
- Site cookie is now valid for 28 days instead of 14.

In its current form, platform individuality will only break out Nintendo 3DS, PC vs. PlayStation Vita

and

I only say it isn't worth having on because it only breaks it down to "Nintendo 3DS, PC vs. PlayStation Vita"

By "In it's current form" are you talking about how the website itself categorises versions based on times? And is that what you were meaning when you said "it only breaks it down to Nintendo 3DS, PC vs. PlayStation Vita"? I thought there would probably be a way for admins to manually change the categorisations if the need arose, since I thought the categorization being wrong would probably be a common thing you've dealt with before. If that's the case that you can't manually change the categorization, at least yet, then I can totally understand you keeping Platform Individuality off whenever the site doesn't correctly categorize the games on their own.

The average play time for the PC version in your screenshot is 3H 33M which lines up with the 3DS submissions and your very own playthrough.

I think you're looking at the screenshot where it says 3h 39m being the average for the PC version, right?. But that 3h 39m is specifically referring to the "Main" time only. I forgot to mention, (but I guess it wasn't relevant until now), that my PC playthrough was a "Main + Extra" playthrough, and my 3DS one was only a "Main" one. So my PC playthrough doesn't closely match with the 3DS version at all if you're correctly comparing it to the "Main + Extra's" average. In fact, with the PC Main + Extra average being 5h 56m, and my PC Main + Extra playthrough being 6h 20m, it much more closely lines up with the PC version, not the 3DS version, which makes sense. And like I said, the 3DS version has half the amount of levels as the PC version, and they are shorter, more dumbed down versions too.

and as you mentioned, you can just look at the platform breakdown below.

Yeah, you are right that the option to see the stuff is still technically there, so I guess it's not the end of the world. I just like being particular with everything showing correctly, including grouping of the platforms. I can certainly deal with it though if you simply can't group them the way they are supposed to be or if it really hurts the stats the way you're suggesting they would - I just don't currently understand how any harm would be done.

Also, just to note: I noticed the game page has been edited and has Platform Individuality enabled again, when it seemed you'd disabled it the other day. The title also has the year added to it now when I don't recall it being like that before... not sure why either (There's only one game with that name).

By "In it's current form" are you talking about how the website itself categorises versions based on times? And is that what you were meaning when you said "it only breaks it down to Nintendo 3DS, PC vs. PlayStation Vita"? I thought there would probably be a way for admins to manually change the categorisations if the need arose, since I thought the categorization being wrong would probably be a common thing you've dealt with before. If that's the case that you can't manually change the categorization, at least yet, then I can totally understand you keeping Platform Individuality off whenever the site doesn't correctly categorize the games on their own.

Yeah, I'm talking about the site's ability to break them out. That is an entirely automated separation and there are no controls for individual breakout. Its pretty simple code that basically examines the data in the platform table that you see on screen and then groups together similar times. It's not very commonly toggled on the site, and I'm not even convinced it's that helpful where its used but user's haven't really pushed for any changes so it wasn't expanded on.

Also, just to note: I noticed the game page has been edited and has Platform Individuality enabled again, when it seemed you'd disabled it the other day. The title also has the year added to it now when I don't recall it being like that before... not sure why either (There's only one game with that name).

Yeah, I togged it back on to see how it looked. Sometimes I like to sit with a change to see how I feel about it. I must have clicked on the date add by accident.

What a cool project.

I don't think we've had a case like this before. I think community feedback would be interesting for a decision like this. The site itself says the product is still in beta. It doesn't qualify under our usual platform standards. Its a virtual platform that runs on "PC". Doesn't really work as a storefront because games can be obtained from all over.

What is status of PICO-8?
PICO-8 is now in Beta, and is feature-complete with the exception of online score submissions, which are planned for 0.3.

Is it possible to sell my PICO-8 cartridges?
There isn't an official PICO-8 marketplace, but you are free to do what you like with cartridge you have exported, including selling them in other markplaces like itch.io or uploading them to advertising-driven sites like Newgrounds and Kongregate. Just make sure you have permission from any other contributing authors first!

Sorry to bother with this but I just reinstalled Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and want it to check my progression on HLTB and I noticed I dont have the game here.

I've beaten it around January and remember adding it her and then editing it when I collect all collectibles. I know I have some notes there about the codex and stuff and dont want to write it again.

I must've accidentally delete it but have no idea when (I have tics and might have miss clicked). If it could be restored I would be really happy but if its not possible that's ok and I am just gonna add it again.

Hello, sorry to hear about the confusion with your entry. Unfortunately, there isn't really a way to track that down and restore it. I do see that you've added it back.

Breaking them out individually means that some platforms will never have an estimated time and it's also a formatting nightmare.

If some platforms don't have an estimated time at the top of the game page, don't those extra platforms simply have their averaged times listed at the bottom, like this?

PS3 appeared there even before you reverted the platform individuality setting. So with Platform Individuality enabled, you should just be able to look at the bottom of the page if it doesn't appear at the top. And the PS3 ver. is the same as PC, so in regards to stats, it should be the same average length.

There's some other variables like not needing to know the differences between all the game.

I'm not quite sure what you mean to say. I know you wouldn't have known these differences, so that's why I highlighted them.

I don't think there's actually enough time variance here to make it worth having enabled.

I'm not sure. I mean, the difference between 3DS and PC is pretty massive. It took me 6:20 to beat the PC ver. and 3:07 to beat the 3DS ver. which is over 50% shorter. (Just for clarification, I didn't beat the 3DS ver. quicker because of having PC practice immediately beforehand; I actually nearly beat the 3DS ver. a few years ago, and only picked back up the last couple of levels the day after beating the PC version a few days ago. So if anything, the 3DS ver. gave me practice, and the PC ver. could have been even longer). I'd understand the time variance argument if it was a massive 100hr game, where the versions only differ by a few hours. But when you're dealing with games <10 hrs in length, a few hours is a huge difference.

In its current form, platform individuality will only break out Nintendo 3DS, PC vs. PlayStation Vita so while your playthrough indicated a large variance between the 2 versions that isn't reflected in the overall data when its toggled on. The average play time for the PC version in your screenshot is 3H 33M which lines up with the 3DS submissions and your very own playthrough.

I only say it isn't worth having on because it only breaks it down to "Nintendo 3DS, PC vs. PlayStation Vita" and as you mentioned, you can just look at the platform breakdown below.

Hi. I edited the site info for Urban Trial Freestyle the other day to give the stats platform individuality, so that the times for each version would be separated. My assumption was that by making that edit, every single platform version of the game would have it's time stats separated. I know the home console version is the same as the PC version, but the 3DS/Mobile and PS Vita versions are different. So while some versions are the same as each other, others are different and therefore it would be better to have all platform stats separated.

My edit was accepted, but I noticed something was a little off:
The 3DS version is grouped with the PC version, and the PS Vita version has been put on it's own.
(Presumably PS3 isn't listed in the stats at the top of the page because it only has 6 completions listed, and Mobile has none listed)

So, there are 3 versions of the game with different levels, amounts of levels, and overall lengths.
The correct grouping should be:
PC, PS3
PS Vita
3DS, Mobile

I own and have played both the 3DS and PC versions, just completed them the other day and can confirm the 3DS version is far shorter.

Looking online, I can see that the PS Vita version appears to be a downgraded version of the original PC/Console version, with redesigned and simplified level designs, which I think is enough to constitute it being it's own version, as it almost certainly affects the time.

On the other hand, the 3DS version seems to be a port of the PS Vita version, due to it having the same simplified versions of levels. But the biggest difference I can see with it compared to Vita, is that the number of levels per-world have been cut from 8 levels, down to 4.

As for the Mobile version, looking on YouTube, it appears to be a direct port of the 3DS version. It has the same main menu interface, the same number of worlds, levels per-world, and (at least for the first world), the exact same order of levels too. That's why I think Mobile should be grouped with 3DS.

The grouping is automated and groups together platforms that have similar times. Breaking them out individually means that some platforms will never have an estimated time and it's also a formatting nightmare. There's some other variables like not needing to know the differences between all the game. I don't think there's actually enough time variance here to make it worth having enabled.

I'm new to this site so I doubt my feedback will be anything new, but I'm really bothered by how the bulk edit treats "beaten" and "completed" as synonyms. Those two don't mean the same thing, especially not for a site that tracks both beaten and 100%. I just set a game to 100% complete and I don't see any special label for that in my collection, if Beat and Completed are the same I'd like to have some sort of indication. Maybe I'm too Steam-brained, but I'm just going through my beat/completed list to manually edit the ones I have at 100% and it's hard to tell which ones I already edited as well. ;w;

Interestingly, this hasn't been mentioned much. I'm sure it has been at some point but I don't remember it in recent years. Its a good idea to have a way to know without expanding details or sorting by a certain type.

The details edit is now applied, but the info is wrong, the psp version is the same as the main consoles, and the ds version is different https://howlongtobeat.com/game/5253

This is a good example of when the game is very different but the time is actually about the same as all the other versions so it might not be worth having on.

Daily Challenge - 2025-07-18
Score: 191 / 300
🟦🟦🟦 🟦 = 75 | P | Outland
🟥🟧🟧 🟩 = 30 | S | The Forest
🟪🟪🟪 🟩 = 86 | R | Sludge Life

Haven't played in a while, it was fun.

Ah, I see, thanks!

Well it wouldn't make senses for Main + Sides to be longer than just the main story, right?

I have been wondering about that since I noticed these times and I guess this might be indeed possible. In case of those Mega Man X games, there are optional items that expand the players life or life refil containers and other upgrades. Getting those are clearly optional, but also make the game easier. It might not be totally unreasonable to think that the detour to collect at least some of those items might be shorter than playing the whole game without any extra items.

But overall I am also not sure if this is really a wider problem that needs to be adressed.

That's a fair and interesting point. Before this was put into place users were often confused when the time categories were presented out of order so I made the change.

I am a bit confused by the Mega Man X8 16-Bit times. There are apparently 4 times polled - one for main story and three for main + extras (but only two are visible in the completion tab). The main story entry is for 6h hours, while main + extras is for around 5 hours (in detail: 5h 15m, 5h). Now in the header main story has 5 hours, while main + sides is 6 hours, but shouldn't it be the other way around?

Here is a picture:


And a link:
https://howlongtobeat.com/game/157555

Well it wouldn't make senses for Main + Sides to be longer than just the main story, right? Games with a small amount of data aren't very accurate so final estimates are sorted to avoid what you are pointing out.

Just wanna say props to your design team, the website is snappy and quick, better than most I visit. They obviously know exactly what they're doing.

Thank you so much, I appreciate that! Big thanks to the community for all the great feedback over the years. I like to think of it as a collaborative effort.

Love the new separated times if there's more than one version of the same game, however i think the main consoles should be the first ones, for example https://howlongtobeat.com/game/10176 nintendo ds should be the bottom one.
Also how is it detecting there's more than one version? for example lego games are different on ds but there's not two different tables https://howlongtobeat.com/game/5253

Once Platform Individuality is marked, it examines the times submitted for each individual platform and then lumps them together if they are similar.