trololololo

I am still plugging away at my list of games that I have yet to play. Join me as I sort through my Steam library and decide which games are worth finishing! Here are the the older posts: The A's, The B's

Now let's get on with the C's!

Cave Story+



Time played: 12 minutes

I got this sweet little indie platformer in one of the Humble Indie Bundles. I have just played it enough to know that I like it. The plus version on Steam let's you pick the original 8-bit style, or a newer 16ish-bit one. I prefer the newer art style, but you can separately choose to play with the 8-bit music, which I really dig. It's not a fast paced game, which is a relief after playing games like BIT.TRIP.BEAT and Super Meat Boy. It's almost an adventure game that controls like a platformer. If any of you have played it, I would really like to know how long it takes to beat. If it's shorter, I might just set aside an evening this week and play it.

Added to backlog.

Cogs

Time played: none

I don't really know anything about this one. I also got it from a Humble Indie Bundle. I'm just gonna skip over this one for now.

Company of Heroes

Time played: 0 minutes (on Steam, anyway)



I bought this on Direct 2 Drive a long time ago, but then I saw it on sale on Steam for a really cheap price. I grabbed it, just because I was having hassles with D2D's install limit. That was the last game I bought from them, and I know I won't be going back. Steam has won my heart, and I am there to stay. I played probably half of the first campaign. I tried a bunch of the multiplayer too, but I got my ass handed to me a lot. I want to finish the single player campaigns for it, and the expansion that I have.

Added to backlog.

Crayon Physics Deluxe

Time played: 49 minutes

This is just a fun little time waster. The title really says it all: it's a game about physics and crayons. It's cool, but it's not really the type of game that will keep me interested for too long.

Cthulu Saves the World



Time played: 2 hours

I love, love, love, love, love this game. It's witty, funny, engaging, well written, and just plain fun to play. I haven't actually laughed at a video game in a long time, and this one was able to pull it off. Cthulu has had all of his power removed and the only way to get it back is to become a hero. So, Cthulu must save the world before he can destroy it. He gets a groupie as his sidekick, and they roll out looking for adventure. It's cool.

Added to backlog.

I'm taking inventory of my Steam account to decide which games I should be finishing. You can read the first post here http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Joshua+Derocher/my-steam-backlog-the-a-s-219834.phtml

Let's get on with the B's!

Batman: Arkham Asylum



Time played: 11 hours

I know what you are thinking, "How do you have so many hours of play time when you haven't beaten the game?" Well, I have started playing it three times. The first time I started playing it, I decided to play it with mouse and keyboard on normal mode. After about three hours, I decided that this game was really easy. I restarted on hard mode, and I decided to kick back and use a controller. This was better for most of the game, but once things started getting tough with boss battles, I just couldn't do it with the controller. I rarely use the damn things, and unless I am doing something easy it's hard for me to get a lot of precision out of them. I really like the game, so I decided to try and switch over to the mouse and keyboard. Unfortunately, I had spent about four hours playing the game with the controller, and I really didn't know how to play with the mouse and keyboard. I decided the best thing to do was to start over again, and learn how to play it all over again. After a couple of hours, I got tired of playing the same thing for the third time. So I moved on to other things. I will finish this game though.

Added to backlog.

EDIT: I beat this one last night. I started another play through on normal difficulty using a controller. Total playtime: 16 hours

Beat Hazard



Time Played: 3 hours

Beat Hazard is very much like asteroids, but it uses music to set the mood for the game. Everything blinks and flashes to the rhythm, and the game gets more intense when your music peaks. You can also use your own music, so the game is a neat cross between an arcade game and a jukebox. If I ever have a house party, I'll probably leave this running with a couple of controllers plugged in. I can't see myself ever playing this solo.


BIT.TRIP.RUNNER



Time played: 21 minutes

This is a very retro feeling platformer. You are always moving forward, and the path is filled with obstacles. You have to hit the right key at the correct time to avoid the obstacle. You jump, duck, and kick your way past things. The levels are quick if you do them right, but it takes a lot of trial and error to learn the correct patterns. Thankfully, the levels reset quickly when you fail, and it's easy to keep playing it until you succeed. I like the games style and music, and I will try and finish this one.

Added to backlog.

Borderlands



Time played: 104 minutes

I like this game. It's a fun shooter and mmo hybrid. I really don't know why I haven't spent more time playing it. I have also played it for about an hour with a friend on his Xbox. I think I haven't played it because it's coop. I always feel like in order to get the most out of game like this, I need to play it with others. The problem is that I rarely do anything multiplayer online, so I don't really have a solid group of people to play things like this with. I also think I would want to find a group to play through the whole thing with. I hate doing something with different people all the time. Regardless of how I play it, I do want to finish this one.

Added to backlog.

Breath of Death VII



Never played

I haven't even started playing this indie RPG, but it's the same guys who made Cthulu Saves the World, so I'm going to play this someday.

Added to backlog.

Bunch of Heroes

Time played: 98 minutes

This is just a little 4-player dual-stick shooter. It's nothing fancy, but it is fun. I might jump into it here and there, but I probably will never actually finish it.

Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box



Time played: 5 hours

I'm not really a fan of racing games, but I enjoy this one. It's easy to just jump into and fool around for a bit. I might never marathon this one to completion, and I don't really even know how I would classify "beating" it, but I will definitely play some more of this. I won't add it to my backlog though, because it lacks a real ending.

I like taking screenshots from video games, and I decided to start a blog for some of the better ones that I take. Here is the link http://vgwallpapers.tumblr.com/

I like games that I can mod and turn off the UI. I don't photoshop any of them or anything like that. I just like to grab them as they actually look.

Go get a new wallpaper, and enjoy!

Jordan's post on the front page this week showed off how easy it is to buy games that we may never finish. I've been using Steam for 3 years now, and over that course of time I have collected a ton of cheap games. Sometimes it's something that I actually wanted for a good price, and other times it's something that is so stupidly cheap that I just refuse. I have found some real gems, and I have found some real stinkers too.

I've decided to start off this new year by taking inventory of my Steam account and trying to sort out the games that I am actually going to play, and the games that I may never touch. I also decided that I would write all of this down here, so I have a public list of my shame. I'm going to make a list in my Steam library called Backlog, and I'll add any games that I really want to finish to this list. Maybe I'll actually play something if people harass me enough. I'm excluding any games that I have already finished.


AND YET IT MOVES



Time played: 17 minutes

This is just a simple little platformer where you get to move the world around you. By rotating the levels, you can jump onto new surfaces and continue to the end. It appears to be very short, so there is a good chance that I'll finish this one.

Added to Backlog.

ANOMALY WARZONE EARTH



Time played: 35 minutes

This is a reverse tower defense game. Instead of defending a base from waves of enemies, you lead the waves towards the base. You have to change your armies route to adjust to enemy towers and obstacles, and you can grab usable items to repair your troops. I love tower defense games, and this is an interesting take on the genre. I'll definitely be coming back to this for more.

Added to Backlog.

ARMA 2 + ARMA 2 OPERATION ARROWHEAD



Time played: 4 hours

Arma 2 is a hardcore military sim. I really like it, but I just never spend that much time with shooters. It's also very reliant on cooperation and communication, so it's not the type of game you can easily jump into with random strangers. I have some friends who play, and one of these days I really want to jump into an epic session. I hear stories about people using military speak the whole time they play, and really sticking to details while they play. This is a great sandbox sim for anyone who dreams of military operations. The single player campaign is really pointless, and I have no desire to play this game alone. Because of this, I won't be adding this to my Backlog list.

ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY

Time played: 0 minutes

I haven't touched this Hearts of Iron II mod at all. It supposedly offers detailed AI that is greatly improved over the original game. Out of all of Paradox's grand strategy games, Hearts of Iron is the one that interests me the least. I got this with the complete Paradox strategy bundle, and I doubt that I will ever play it.

AQUARIA



Time played: 50 minutes

This little gem reminds me a little bit of Ecco the Dolphin. You swim around and sing songs to plants and sea creatures. The story seems to be very artsy, and this game just drizzles with indie ooze. It's simple, but it has enough unique concepts to make me really want to play this to the end.

Added to Backlog.

ATOM ZOMBIE SMASHER



Time played: 79 minutes

This is one of those great little short session games. You have to defend against zombies, and it's fast paced and engaging. Each match takes place in a zone, and you have to either try to get out all of the survivors or kill all of the zombies. Once you finish a match, that zone is yours. Clear all the zones, and you win.

I had a blast with the one night that I played this, and I'll probably spend another hour or two with it. There is no real major story arc, or winning for that matter, so it's not really one that I can add to my Backlog.

AUDIOSURF



Time played: 115 minutes

The fun apart about Audiosurf is that you can play it with any song that you want. You ride down a track and try and form patterns with the blocks that you hit. I like the leaderboards, and competing with your friends is fun. I just never spend time playing games like this. I prefer games that have a story, or games that let me beat other players in a competitive match. I rarely spend times with games that are just simply "games". I have nothing against them, and I will probably spend a little bit more time playing this in the future, but it's not high on my priority list.


Let me know in the comments if you have played any of these, and if I need to drop everything that I am doing to play something on this list!

Hey, so I co-host and produce this podcast called Plan B. It's a non-topical, ramble-fest, that is almost always off-topic. We don't plan ahead, and we don't edit anything out of the show. We just sit down and talk about video games.

If your interested in giving the show a listen, just click the link!

http://traffic.libsyn.com/planb/Episode_26.mp3