Monthly in a Month #41: The Mascot Edition

My first time giving this a try! Sounds like a good way to start clearing my backlog :)

Definitely gotta try for this, and with two months, I'll probably finish, haha. :D
Ugh, I put it off way too long, lol. Now I gotta try to finish a bunch before I head to Japan next week... :/
BTW will FTTF count? It has a "campaign" mode, so do I just need to beat each of the levels once?

I guess I can add some thoughts about them, too.
Fling To the Finish is kinda fun, though I feel like the chaos of co-op mode would probably be funnier. The "Campaign" is made up of each of the game, with several modes that unlock by doing first the basic mode then more of the alternate modes, the basic mode is pretty casual, you get the 3 ducks just for completing it in any amount of time, which was nice, then the hidden ducks was my next favorite, in which you must scour the level for the hidden ducks before reaching the end, also with no time limit. The times ones stressed me out more, haha.
A short Hike is a cute and fun little game, I was wanting to 100% it, but I really wish there was some sort of tracker to help guide you to the last collectibles, because even though the map is pretty small, it can take a while to hunt and look in all the possible hiding spots...
Behind the Frame was interesting, with kind of Escape Room qualities and a somewhat confusing story, but pretty nice.
FRAMED was... I don't really know, I don't have the faintest idea what was supposed to be happening in the story, but the puzzles were pretty unique, though some were really confusing to me, so I wasn't even sure what I did differently to succeed, haha.
Lethal League Blaze was pretty fun, I know I played the first, but I didn't remember much about how to play, and some of the modes were MUCH more difficult for me than others. I was getting pretty annoyed with the target smashing one until I got really lucky, and the ones with 4 people, teams and free-for-all, are way more difficult than 1v1 IMO. Will probably go back to get all the checkmarks soon.
Textorcist was pretty interesting, too. I'm glad I was playing with a controller, though I'm fairly certain it plays completely different with just KB, as on the controller you press the bumper corresponding to the correct letter above your head (or as I found out later, the bumper shown over the text at the bottom, which made it quite a bit easier for me). I don't think I'd ever be able to play it with the KB, honestly, as I barely managed with the controller. There's a relic you can get that makes it so mistakes don't undo the typing, so that would probably be super OP on controller, since you could just mash or turbo mode the bumpers to type it all automatically, haha. But I couldn't manage to unlock that and don't know if I'll go back.
Lastly Windjammers 2 was way more difficult than I was expecting, there was no playable tutorial before the arcade mode, so I had no idea what I was doing the first time, and even after I looked through the "How to play" I couldn't for the life of me remember what did what, so after every fail (usually made it to the final encounter at least) I went back to try to figure out how they were doing what they did... Eventually I just chose the character I had the hardest time beating and just barely beat Easy mode, but man. I imagine playing locally with friends would be fun... If you could convince them to try and figure out how it works before you scare them off with all your cheap shots, haha.

Lots of participants on this one! Looks like the extended edition does work.
I'm going to try and get a few longer plays in. Fingers crossed
Oops, with the extended edition, I totally forgot to update my board.

I looooved Arcade Paradise. The "story" and laundry simulation were not too bad actually. I must admit I was perplexed when I saw the game trailer and wondered why they couldn't just do an arcade sim without all the added... fluff? But it keeps the pace going nicely with a progression to the arcade growth. I kinda got lost in the arcade at some point so the story took a backseat for a while and now that I'm done with the story, I'll definitely go back to my arcade and sink more time in the cabinets.
Warning for any potential player though: the nostalgia is strong with this one. It'll sink its teeth in you and won't let go (especially if you are old enough to have spent hours in arcades) and unlike in the game, you won't pass out if you stay up all night playing games so check the watch every once in a while ;)

I wasn't a fan of Yakuza 4. First Yakuza game I've played and I'm in no hurry to try the others I have. It's like a long boring B movie with terrible dialog that you need to click through like some crap visual novel, and some tiny bits of beat 'em up in between. I had more fun playing the mini games than the campaign. May play some more just for the baseball, bowling and table tennis.

I went way waaaay back for the next one and I'm glad I did. I can't believe Rebel Galaxy had been sitting untouched so long in my library. It reminded me so much of the old EVE (yes, before it went online ((yes, i'm that old))) and it was loads of fun. I started several runs at the same time, and I would have spent a few more dozens of hours on it if I wasn't still 3 games short (ouch)

**Merchant of the Skies was pretty bland. I was hoping for something more evolved I guess. I spent more time trying to figure out how to do anything in the game than actually strategizing. Bit of a let down. Oh well, onwards.

I must say I didn't understand the bad reviews for WWE2K before I played it. It looked fun. It wasn't. The controls are lagging so much, it takes forever for any input to make it to your character, by which time the CPU controlled character has tossed you to Neptune and slammed you back to earth. It really should have been a hard game to mess up. Now I understand the very low achievement rate for the campaign. I wouldn't have finished it if not for the event.

I was hoping to play Rise of the Tomb Raider to finish the month but life happens so i had to go for something shorter. As FMV games from Wales Interactive, Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus wasn't too bad. Some of the acting is bad enough to give you heart burn but all in all, it's not too bad

First week into the challenge bump!

1. Raji: An Ancient Epic - November 2022 - Done
2. Just Cause 3 XXL Edition - January 2019 - Done
3. The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos - September 2022 - Done
4. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning FATE Edition - November 2022 - Done
5. Aven Colony - April 2021 - Done
6. Disco Elysium - August 2023 - Done

Again, thank you for your generosity Cj, clearing the backlog, and trying out new games.
I'll make sure to draw some impressions for future players.
Two month this time - let's go! And again, thanks Cj!

Three weeks bump!

Rise of the Tomb Raider (October 2017) The Price of Truth
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (December 2019) Quite the Adventure
Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth (June 2018) The End.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope (October 2022) Full Circle
Remnant: From the Ashes (June 2023) Dark Awakening
Pumpkin Jack (June 2022) The Baddest Bad Guy

Roadwarden
Spyro: Reignited Trilogy
Hellblade Senua Sacrifice
Spiritfarer
Road96

One month bump! Halfway there!

I couldn't properly unlock achievements for Saints Row IV. From what I read online it's most likely because when I created my main save file at the very start I was playing as offline. I always played online later but sometimes they unlocked, sometimes they didn't. Anyhow, I've got the one for completing the main story, so it shouldn't be a problem I hope.

I didn't notice this one was two months long :( If I had I would have tried to participate, I'd have had enough time to play through the 6 games. Maybe next time! :)

• GRIME HLTB time is less than mine because devs on June 9 added new free NG+ DLC, so it became much harder to complete the game compared to its release state. They actually gonna add one more soon with one more achievement to earn.. Strange practice to add achievements after the release, but whatever
• no wows and favs this month. All games are decent, but that's it. Maybe I'm getting old/bored.
• The two-month event is great, I managed to include GRIME and I didn't feel rushed to play my games :D

checks my PAGYWOSG games to see how close I was for this event to note for future ones - LMK if you see any issues with these.

1. Etherborn - Mar 2020 choice - End achievement

2. Road 96 - August 2023 Choice - Border Master achievement

3. Rogue Lords - March 2023 Choice - The Final Chapter achievement

4. Crown trick - Sep 2022 Choice - Crown of Darkness/Ruler of the dreamrealm achievements

5. BIOMUTANT - March 2023 Choice - Paragon achievement

6. Ghostwire: Tokyo - June 2023 choice - conclusions achievement