#gaming backlog

[l3rking]

Backlog Review!!

I work in higher education so we're off a few weeks for the holidays. Finally giving me the chance to go through my frankly insane backlog on Steam. I'm just gonna rapidfire through the ones I've completed so far with a brief review and recommendation if I liked it. In no particular order.

I like FPS games. Almost every game in this list is an FPS. I'm sorry. The backlog has a ton of other genres. I just haven't played them. Sorry again.

I Am Your Beast

I wouldn't even call it an FPS. High score and stylish takedowns are what it's about. It's so good. I've played close to 20 hours and have maybe seen 75% of the base game just from running the same level over and over again (there's a DLC that I will be buying). It feels good to play. The music, artstyle, and story are great. Huge props to the VAs. The performances are very good. Big recommend.

Colt Canyon

An isometric pixel cowboy-themed twin stick shooter roguelite. That's a lot of buzzwords but they all hit the nail. It about as cookie cutter as you can get. That sounds mean but the game really is just average. I can think of at least 5 other games that do this same thing but better. If I had one real complaint it's the artstyle. Performance is weird and it can be incredibly difficult to parse out detail in the monotone pixels. It's a miss for me.

HROT

I love this game. It's a love letter to čeština. There's a lot of commentary about the political state of then Czechoslovakia. The first level is called, "Kiss Me Gustav". It's not subtle. And it's very good. It plays like any good Quake clone should. Movement is tight. Shooting feels good. Exploration is heavily rewarded. And it's extremely funny. The Horse will forever be my favorite video game character. Show a Czech dev some love. Huge recommend.

PIGFACE

I just love this game's style. Something about late 90s early 00s shooters that I just can't get enough of. Sure it's nostalgia but there's something about the way these games play. There's no fluff but a ton of depth. PIGFACE is a great example of that. It's dead simple. You're a hitman. One the best. So much so that you get kidnapped and have a bomb implanted in the base of your skull. Take on jobs. Complete them however you wish. Get out. Get paid. Buy more tools to give you more options in how you take on more jobs so you can make more money. Easy. Each job is essentially it's own sandbox. You have a list of objectives. Complete them however you see fit. Stealth. Explosions. Maniac with a axe. Whatever. It's early access and there's not as much content as I'd like. But I'd at least recommend wishlisting until 1.0

:3

Mohrta

Tbh I haven't finished this one yet but I love it so much I gotta talk about it. It's like a weird hybrid between Doom, Morrowind, and King's Field. It's very good with a very charming artstyle and competent gameplay and progression. Exploration is the real draw with clever gags, useful gear, and exposition rewarding curious adventurers. The story is interesting and comes on very strong. You'll be fumbling around in the lore for a while. Even though I haven't finished it, I can still recommend this one for dark fantasy enjoyers.

Prodeus

This one is just straight up Doom. More Brutal Doom. The shooting is great. The maps are well designed. Exploration is rewarding. So much viscera. Tons of community content. It's solid and if you want a modern interpretation of old Doom, you can't get much better. Big recommend if that's your thing.

Selaco

Selaco has some of the best gunplay in any game ever. It's crazy what the devs did to make GZDoom, a source port of the original engine that ran Doom (in basic layman's terms that leaves out a lot of the picture), to run like this. Particle effects are going crazy, bullets are firing through glass, the enemies are shouting at each other in various levels of terror, smoke is coming off of...everything. It incredibly immersive...once you make it past chapter 2. The first 2 levels are kind of a slog. Tons of backtracking. Long moments of silence while you're just fumbling around lost. And listen, I love imm-sims. Deus Ex is one of the GOATs. But it feels out of place here and just grinds a really engaging experience to a halt. It improves a lot after the 2nd level and the highs become much more frequent. Recommend with a caveat.

SULFUR

Some folk (youtubers *derogatory*) have called this an extraction shooter. It's not. It's more roguelite than anything. And tbh extraction shooters are just roguelikes with more mechanics. You'll manage a stash, acquire and modify gear, and complete jobs as you move through various levels with diverse landscapes and great enemy variety. You always have the ability to teleport back to your home base at any point in your run provided your amulet is charged. The real draw here is the artstyle. It's fantastic. And complements the gameplay so well. It also just had it's 1.0 release and the devs just keep adding stuff. Huge recommend.

Transience

Transience is interesting. I avoided it for a while for a variety of reasons. Reviews didn't seem particularly favorable. All conflicting with each other. It's backed by a divisive YouTuber I wasn't familiar with. Gameplay didn't look very compelling. But then I played it. Then I played it three more times. The campaign is short. 10 hours on my first run but you can get it down to <7 if you're not secret hunting and know where to go. It plays like an old school tactical FPS (think R6:Vegas) and Splinter Cell. Stealth is challenging and effective but by no means mandatory. EXCEPT for a few levels where alerting enemies can put you in a soft lock. I think it's more of a conveyance issue but it's buggy in a few other places too. But the save system is generous and they never made the game unenjoyable. As a fan of old R6 and Splinter Cell games, I really enjoyed it. It seemed like a lot of people were just expecting very different things and weren't thrilled it was a secret third thing. I don't blame the game for that. Big recommend.

Dagger Directive

This just literally is an old school tactical FPS. It's in early access and while there is enough there to justify the price I would like a bit more. Fortunately the devs do seem dedicated albeit a bit slow. It borrows heavily from the stylings and mechanics of games like Operation Flashpoint and Delta Force. Mission variety is good. As is weapon variety. Multiplayer is a ton of fun but the solo experience is also worth the price. It fills a very particular niche and does it well. Big recommend if you want a single player Arma experience.

And that's everything I've played so far. Still playing a ton of Destiny. Really enjoy the dungeon and Lawless Frontiers. This is the rest of my backlog. At least out of what's currently installed.

[unicorncoalition]

my version of spotify wrapped is the gaming spreadsheet i started in january in an effort to only play the games in my backlog and not purchase any new games in 2024. i did not actually succeed at that goal, but here are the final stats: total games played: 54 total games completed: 51 total hours played: 1000+ average games per month: 4.5 backlog games played: 42 games i replayed: 8 new games purchased in 2024: 12 games still on my backlog purchased before 2024: 12

i doubt i'll go so hard next year, but i do plan to keep tracking what i play because it really helped my decision fatigue when i didn't know what to play next to have it all laid out for me in a pretty spreadsheet.

[mintyfreshka]

Gaming Backlog Side Quest: Kingdom Hearts Re:Visited - A Fragmentary Retrospective (Part 1)

So it's only my second blog post in this backlog series, and I'm already veering off-course from what I originally thought it was going to be lol. Basically I want these KH Re:Visited posts to be a way for me to look back on how I got into this series while I share it with a friend of mine: @plzdonthitmewithyourcar. I think both fans of the series and people with <1% knowledge about this funky ass series should be able to enjoy the post though.

(Start of backstory) My introduction to Kingdom Hearts was very unconventional; I essentially stumbled across a volume of the manga while browsing my local library as a kid:

So to my naive self, I assumed that this was the first volume of the whole series, and the "II" of the logo was lost on me (cuz I was a 11 year old lmao). I knew nothing about it, and the cover stood out to me so I decided to take it home and give it a read.

My introduction to the series consisted of what I think is still my favorite false-start to a game I've played. I fully went into this book, and by extension the KH series thinking that it was all about this young teen named Roxas and his friends living in Twilight Town slowly discovering a series of odd events relating to strange creatures called "Nobodies"; Enough to say that by the end of the first volume the rug got pulled out from under me as I was introduced to the true protagonist of the series, Donald, and Goofy: the first truly Disney characters (which also took me aback because I didn't know that the Square Enix x Disney crossover was so literal)

So with that first volume consumed and my pre-teen mind absolutely blown, I voraciously looked for anything else I could consume about the series. (End of backstory)

So now that I'm introducing a dear friend of mine to the series, I've decided to essentially follow the same path that I went on when I was learning the series while introducing them. I've only played the opening of KH2 with them, before we have now switched over to KH1. I'm very pleased that the opening still has the same charm that captured me years ago. The pleasant coziness and simplicity of Twilight Town, contrasted to the feeling of ominous foreshadowing when the supernatural elements begin to become more present and Roxas is forced to confront the answers to the questions he's been asking himself.

Game cinematics are sick AF, gameplay holds up so well (looking at you KH1), and the writing is very recognizably that charming yet unnatural approach to character-driven story.

Some of the things that I hadn't appreciated as much on my first playthrough was the interactions with Seifer, and how Hayner was essentially behind-the-scenes rallying people in the town to help figure out what was going on with Roxas and all the strange events that were beginning to show up around their quiet town. I think noticing interactions like those made me appreciate even more the tragic story of Roxas.

So yeah, this series is really special to me, and I'm really glad to be able to share it with people and blog about it. :)

[thejazzywaffles]

Just finished Chants of Sennaar, my first game of 2024

What game should I play next?

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

Cassette Beasts

Slay the Princess

Changeling Tale (NSFW)

Rain World

The Secret of Monkey Island

Disc Creatures

Hiveswap

Hollow Knight

Niche: A Genetics Survival Game

One of my 150+ other backlogged games

Something else (reply)

Voting ended onJan 24, 2024

If you wanna recommend a game, I tend to like games with critters, puzzles, and narratives.

[caligo404]

As horrible as this sounds in terms of making actual progress on my backlog... I really want to buy these two games! (Just getting paid & Nintendo eshop sales are tempting me!!) I don't know what's worse buying both these games or an 18 dollar sanrio figure off eBay 🌤️

[ripley95]

It’s been a while since I’ve looked at my gaming collection. I think I might have a slight problem.

[benis-chillin]

Gaming Backlog Reviews 2026: Resident Evil 4

Platform: Steam Deck

February 21st-March 7th, 2026

(Previous review)

Sorry for the wait on this one, guys! Got a little wrapped up writing scripts for the YouTube, among other things.

Btw, did you guys know I recently launched on a new channel? Maybe check that out, you might like it. Did this cool video on why Sonic Fans should play Metroid Games, and later this year will be a Resident Evil video.

Anyway, Resident Evil 4. The last mainline entry I wanted to check out before I touch any of the remakes(I bought the first one, and was gifted the one for 2 and 3 over Christmas), and not a bad point to jump off from.

Now, I did use some mods here. Mainly just RE4 Tweaks for invincibility, infinite ammo, and health bars on the enemies to help with the spatial awareness problems I have with games like this. I also used various small bug fixes they recommended, though sadly, Ashley's fixed camera angles did NOT work despite being turned on. Idk what happened there, but I wanted some of those fixed cameras.

I notably did NOT use the HD Project mod, since it was a lot of setup to just have a GameCube game look less like a GameCube game, and I just kinda realized that I was fine with a GameCube game looking like a GameCube game.

I emulate, I'm used to it.

As for the game itself, it's great! Amazing, even. Maybe a little sullied by having played other games that used its mechanics beforehand, but it's still a solid time. Aiming did take a moment to get used to, as Leon's hands shake like a crack addict with some guns, but we were Gucci within the first two play sessions there. 

They did a really good job translating the Resident Evil gameplay to the new perspective, even if I feel like a lot of atmosphere was lost by the change. You can definitely feel how DMC influenced this game from tone to even stealing the door transitions, but the changes are never in a way I mind, per say.

The story is…Just kinda there? I get why Umbrella got put on a bus, but their presence being less overwhelming kinda sucks. Granted, Las Plagas and the cult stuff is a decent remix of the usual Umbrella undertones, and Umbrella itself is implied to be still working in the shadows, but I still think Umbrella being an ongoing threat for a BIT longer in the series would've been nice. At least up until the 10 year mark. 

It doesn't help that there's a lot of "you missed some past stuff" in this plot. I know Wesker comes back for Code Veronica(which I plan to play next year), so he's already back from being dead or whatever he ends up as in your RE1 playthrough, but elements like Leon's former partner(and possible spurned lover? Dude exudes repressed homosexuality)Krauser make it feel like I stepped into this thing without having played most of the series, and this is only the 4th numbered entry.

Idk, it's a small weakness, and I understand wanting to weave in the old zombie narrative in this plot where people aren't undead so much as mind-controlled(which still technically fits the definition of a zombie, so I appreciate the cleverness there), but it did bug me.

The important stuff is good, though. I was diehard for Leon and Ada since my first playthrough of RE2, and their relationship here was well realized, with Leon no longer being as naive as he was back then, but still having to contend with Ada being as she always was(if a bit more blatant about it). I'm also glad they kept her RE2 voice actress for this to keep the character consistent, even if Leon didn't get the same treatment(though for his character, it kinda makes sense).

(Btw, we have the clear reference to RE2's ending with the rocket launcher being thrown to us by Ada, but no "Game Over" by Leon? Little disappointed by that…)

Luis was also a delight for how little he was in the plot, and while I'd always gotten the impression that people hated Ashley, I actually quite liked her. She's scared for her life, sure, and gets offended when a grownass man sexualizes her for no reason(2005, amirite?), But otherwise she openly volunteers to help where she can, and listens to the actual expert when he tells her to do something.

Though I do gotta question why Leon doesn't just give her a gun? I kinda wondered this with Sherry in RE2, as well. Like, sure, Sherry was a child, but I think those types of reservations go out the window when you're a kid frequently left to yourself in the zombie apocalypse. Ashley is a teenager whom you could give a gun, quickly show her how it works, and then she can defend herself a bit when you can't. 

Oh yeah, and the merchant. Through an infinite ammo cheat, I robbed that man blind.

So yeah, maybe not as revolutionary today as it was back then, but the original RE4 is still a good time. Maybe among the best good times you could have across its various platforms. And now I consider myself free to mix in remakes with the mainline entries I still gotta play, so maybe we'll hear about those in the future.

8/10.

And as for next time? Well, I'm taking a slight gaming break so I can get actual video production on my YouTube scripts started, but I'll probably do Spider-Man: Web of Shadows on Nintendo DS next! See ya then!

[lavendercatboy-blog]

Item: The Wishlist Rarity: ⏶ Common

How many video games are in your backlog right now?

Feed your dashboard by answering my question, blogger.

Ough lemme count brömther-

6 on my switch, 11 on steam, and 17 in total (in my defense I’m having to negotiate hostage terms with my stupid WiFi company so I’m not really able to download new games without “loitering” in the lobby of my apartment building)