Pile of Games – The Incompletionist

Interim Report Fall – Part 2

And so here it is – my second part of my report on what I have played this summer. Once more I have to report on quite a number of stalled / incompleted games.

And here it is – the second part of my report on what I have played since this summer. Once more I have to acknowledge to quite a number of stalled / paused / incompleted games.

Black Desert – stalled
Sword Art Online – Re: Hollow Fragment – stalled (and a bit creeped out)
Pillars of Eternity – paused
Cyberpunk 2077 – paused
Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey – still playing.

Black Desert (stalled)

Black Desert Online (BDO) is a Korean sandbox MMO with probably the most beautiful game world and most impactful action combat system I know so far. And it’s a life simulator, that you can play 24/7 with AFK activities like fishing, farming, cooking and what not (called life skilling).

I have played already a quite substantial amount of hours several years ago, then being purely fascinated by the stunning visuals and fighting styles, and triggered by BDOs’ many many progress bars. This game wants your time, this game demands your time and attention 24/7, and it gets your time. Just playing casually is maybe a nice-try-resolution at the beginning, but the longer you play, the more time you will invest into it. Every minute you are not training your horse, your stamina, your whatever XP-bar, is a lost minute.

After watching TheLazyPeons return to BDO video on YouTube, I recognized, that they have changed a lot in the grind and overall feel of the game. “Well, why not give it a try again!”, I thought. “Why not try that drug again? Just for a bit!” is what I really said.
So there are ‘Seasons’ now and ‘fast-level catch-up servers’. And to be fair, they have reduced the level-grind and sped up several core level mechanics. Even the story progression, that I completely lost track of in my first time I played, was more straightened out and consistent (but still not a good story). I also re-rolled on the new Guardian class and was again blown away by the combat.

After several hours the true core gameplay-loop started to shine through once more and luckily I was realizing that early on; my motivation to play was quelled and I uninstalled the game as fast as I possibly could.

Time played: approx. 9-10h.

Sword Art Online – Re: Hollow Fragment (stalled)

Let’s talk and talk and talk and talk. Cutscenes can be pretty long once in a while.

First things first: I am a Kirito. This means I am a fan of the anime Sword Art Online; Kirito being the main protagonist. And no, within the anime community, this is not a nice attribute to attach to someone.

The overall story is based on a Japanese light-novel about 10.000 people being locked in a VR-MMORPG, accessed via a device called NerveGear, designed and build by a Akihiko Kayaba. In order to ‘finish’ the game, all players would have to defeat the final boss on the final stage (level 100, and guess who that could be?) of a Tower-based dungeon. If you die in the game, your body in the real world will also die; the NerveGear helmet will simply fry your brain.

The game was originally released on the PS-Vita in 2014 and ported to PC in 2018; so graphics are rather dated, and the interface is a shabby mess, although close to the anime. The games’ story is set in a parallel timeline to the novel/anime, introducing the main cast and some new characters (girls) alongside. There is kind of an Open World to explore, but basically it is about grinding and becoming stronger, as well as about grinding to unlock the 100 additional characters in the game. You do that to form a raid group and proceed to the final tower level stages.

What really turned me off, was the built in dating sim to unlock all those girls (and some boys). Kirito has of course a girlfriend (Asuna), but can meet and flirt with all the other girls (and bro-talk with the boys) in the game. There is of course a sort of romance-progress bar for certain characters. So while you play, you take a partner with you. The girls will suddendly start a conversation and you can quickly press a button and start a mini-game with a time-gated selection of answers to “say the correct/expected answers”. If you do that often enough and choose wisely, hearts will appear, everybody will adore you, and later you can even ‘lie down’ with some girls in your inn together in the bed and … TALK. Of course.

Okay, what actually turned me off is not that you can / should / have to do that, but that you have to do that with so many characters. And even that would have been okay, but the activity itself is just plain dumb and boring. Or probably I am just too old and life has sucked all romantic feelings out of my dry, realist and soulless body. Oh, that tragic disconnect from the young generations full of love and butterflies.

Stalled for good and creeped out by pure romantic sociableness.

Time played: 3h | Achievements: 1%.

Pillars of Eternity (paused)

Welcome to Gilded Vale – a bright future awaits!

What went wrong here I do not know. This game should pull all my riggers and play a symphony of pure epic cRPG’ness.

It never really came to be and I am still wondering why and what and when I will re-enter the game. Maybe there is a right time for every game, like for me playing AC:Origins a second time and go for total completion.

Then, why not just give it more time.

Time played: 6h

Cyberpunk 2077 (paused)

The Photo-mode in the game is just great. Vroom vroooom!

Oh, how I have waited for this. How I silently hoped, that this will be a great game.

I did not read any reports for almost two years. No trailers, no reveals, no information (besides the delayed releases) at all. The setting seemed perfect, because I love William Gibsons Neuromancer and the Blade Runner movies. I love CD Project RED for their storytelling and care for details. I wanted this so much.

When it was finally out I jacked right in and holy crap, until the end of Act I this was probably one of the best story-driven and immersive experiences I have ever played. Purely. Awesome.

I had almost no bugs at all, despite some flying cigarettes and mobile phones, so I could really enjoy the story and how well my character was placed within the game world through the first-person view.

But when the world then opens up, all the little and larger compromises started to show; and that more time would have done the game a lot more good. The AI from traffic and opponents is straight dumb, driving with keyboard is not cool, the open world is crowded and empty, you cannot upgrade or change your safe-house, the police is spawning behind you (always) and honestly – overall there is not much to do.

BUT when you do(!) side quests and of course the main story quests, the game truly shines and is just plain awesome again.

So while I savor this feelings of awesomeness deep within, I will give Cyberpunk 2077 more time and some patches to stabilize and become more of the game it should have been.

Wake me up, when you are ready, Samurai.

Time played: 18h | Achievements: 3%.

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (playing)

The Ancient Greek world is so beautiful.

‘Diocles… sounds Greek. Well, maybe one day I should travel to Greece… .’

Wait, hold that thought! In my review of Assassin’s Creed: Origins I already hinted a little peak into the vast Ancient Greek game world. Well, when this little peak became a mindless stare, you know you are hooked.

In a short review, AC: Odyssey is truly that – an Odyssey. This game is way larger than Origins and has even more stuff to do in the game world. I play as Kassandra this time and I have to say I really got used and to love her blunt and charming character, slicing, hacking and bashing my way through Greece and its islands.

So far I have followed a similar path as in Origins, but this time they have not included an achievement for total map completion (Praise the gods!). So after again completing every question mark and killing every poor captain I could spot, I finally switched gears and aim now to proceed more in the story. I just completed Episode 5 and I already hit level 48, so I guess I am a tiny bit ahead. Not a big deal, as I play on hard difficulty and all the world is leveling with me anyway.

The main story is quite ok so far, and as with Origins, when the story is becoming dense, it’s always becomes quite good and entertaining. Unfortunately I have yet to find a good side-story quest. There have hardly been any worthy of note; I cannot remember even one at all right now.

I will definitely write on my journey through Greece at a later stage, so please look forward to it.

Time played: 64h | Achievements: 27%.

Interim Report: Fall – Part 1

After the glory that has been Assassin’s Creed: Origins and Star Wars: Fallen Order I thought that finally a momentum started building up. After enjoying and completing both games, I would now(!) be ready and on fire – a Streak-of-Completion with my next selected games, and my Pile of Shame would finally start melting like snow on a first spring day.

Spoiler: Nope. Did not happen. Actually, it even got worse.

My meandering between games this summer / autumn was terrible. The worst ever. I started games and lost all interest in the middle of them. I swore I would complete this game, but I did not even made it on three hours in, or more than 15 minutes. One reason I did not post more these last months, was out of shame on my limited process. Shame, as in Pile of Shame, that is.

So, the moment of truth is now: Here is what I have played and stalled for – Part 1.

World of Warcraft Pandaria – stalled
X-Morph Defense – paused
I am Setsuna – stalled
Anthem – paused
Bastion – stalled
Ys: Origins – completed 1st play-through, paused

World of Warcraft – Mists of Pandaria (stalled)

They never convinced me… these Pandas. Never did.

Yes, you read that right. I stopped WoW after Blizzcon 2011, when the expansion was announced. After a mediocre, but still ok’ish Catalclysm expansion, I simply could not take this dramatic turn to Pandas, their comic-like presentation, all on beer, food and laid backness, embedded in a overflowing and intense Cliché-Chinese setting (on towards a new market). Too close to Kung-Fu Panda; and I really like the movie!

It did not sit well with the overall, at this time, brooding and dark atmosphere of WoW-Catalcysm. Also the reduction of skill-trees and the continuing trend to a more casual game was very disappointing. So my brother and I quit our subscriptions on that very night.

When a colleague from work was all hyped for the new Shadowlands expansion, he turned me around and I – in my already deep struggle of not knowing what I should play – agreed on subscribing again, transferring my character to his server, and even change alliance. I thought, I go all in here; that Euros would equal out towards more motivation to play. First I wanted to start with my trusty Druid, but rerolled on a Demon Hunter. Druid was so boring to play, and Demon Hunter provided at least some mobility and fun. So much for money spent and motivation to play.

To make things even more a ‘challenge’ I insisted on starting where I left – in Pandaria, and play on the Main Story Questline through all Expansions. I have trouble connecting with a game, when I have story-holes or simply jump ahead. And boy, that was probably a mistake. Questing and story was bland and horrible experience: C’mon Boy! – Fetch this! Fetch that! Shake the tree over there for fruits, cuz I’m a lazy fat Panda! Catch ‘dem squirrels!

Arriving from Final Fantasy XIV, as an all recognized Warrior of Light & Darkness, I simply could not bear (*heh*) this useless and shameful quest grind anymore.

Yes, I stalled. And nope, no return to WoW for me. I left for good this time.

Time played: approx. 18-20h.

X-Morph Defense (paused)

Our mother core landing in a caste in Britain.

This game was requested by my kids, when we looked for something new to play. It’s about being the commander of an alien invasion on Earth, where you try to defend your alien core from these pesky Earthling attacks.

Attacks happen on predefined paths, so X-Morph follows a Tower-Defense style of gameplay, where you build turrets along the way, to neutralize enemies approaching your core ship. You are flying around with your drone and upgrade towers and help shooting everything down.

Rather a fun game for in-betweens, but not really motivating in terms for completing it. Stages become simply more and more challenging and you will move across continents, so the surrounding changes once in a while.

Time played: 2h | Achievements: 7%.

I am Setsuna (stalled)

Let’s face it – gating is not cool, right?

The first game by Tokyo RPG Factory and quite a success in reviews and overall reception. Especially the soundtrack was mentioned often with praise, being mainly delivered on a piano; and I can only agree to that.

The game itself is true to classic 16bit JRPGs, but with a more modern engine, and really gets those nostalgic vibes going (so to speak). As with all JRPGS mechanics are constantly introduced, but it remains often unclear on how the meta in the end works out (or how it should work out). The game tries to explain a lot with Tutorials, although most of the time I felt the mechanics were under-explained or obscured by the game.

The story itself evolves around Setsuna, who is presenting herself as an offer to calm the late uprising in monster attacks throughout the continent. You, as the main protagonist were actually tasked to kill her, but then change your mind to protect her along her pilgrimage, which feels very close to Final Fantasy X’s Yuna storyline.

The game became very grindy later on, which would not be a big deal, but it forces you to re-do one cave over and over and over again to level-up your characters. Why you have to do that? Because there is a mid-boss gating you unless you reach a certain level to half-way get a chance on dispatching him. I did not hurry or stress-run through the game at all, did side-quests and also often looked for combat while roaming around, but I was still dramatically under-leveled when I reached this boss. After running the cave around 20 times, I still lacked some levels and was then quitting and postponing the game for good. As a side-effect I now have so much money and items, that I break the economy of the game and can buy everything I like. Which is of course nice, but somehow also a bit stupid.

I think I will finish the game at a later stage, because I really want to know how Setsuna’s pilgrimage will end.

Time played: 12.7h | Achievements: 30%.

Anthem (paused)

Flying with my Colossus really is an amazing feeling.

Yes, I bought Anthem on a sale for a one digit amount of Euros. The games’ lore, art style and mechanics have interested me from the first time I heard about them. When Anthem crash-landed and shattered at the ground of reality, I found the story around its’ development and BioWares’ incapability of delivering a good game in their latest releases intriguing.

So when I started playing, my hopes were not too high, but the game has convinced me otherwise. The story really is well delivered and the voice-actors do a fantastic job on bringing their characters alive (at least the main cast). The history and background story is atmospheric and well done, but the mystical bullshit-bingo sometimes way too much. Facial expressions are also fine and the overall feeling for the world feels really immersive.

When you move outside your hub, the flaws in design and engine show pretty fast. A rather stale world with mediocre shooter mechanics, and an awkward loot and equipment progression system. And as mentioned so often already: Flying is really something.

When I saw progress on Anthem 2.0 is under way, I paused and will wait for the update being deployed maybe next year. Really looking forward on how they will revamp the game; and BioWare always gets a second chance from me.

Time played: 5h | Achievements: 4%.

Bastion (stalled)

I made it this far … literally face down.

With all the hype about their latest game Hades, Supergiant Games seems like a pillar for creative and innovative game design. Bastion delivers a narrator-focused isometric adventure experience, which received a lot of praise and very good ratings on Steam.

But there is something that does not connect between the game and myself, from the moment I started. And this disconnection is so strong, that I did not even hold a single hour of playing the game; even though I am very interested in the overall-premise of the game!

Maybe I wait until the time is right. Whenever that will be.

Time played: 15min (yeah, yeah … I know).

Ys Origin (completed, paused)

The story is well delivered, and surprisingly interesting.

A game I started playing in 2015, as it was always reviewed as fast, fun and challenging. I stalled due to life-related reasons, but this one always nagged about somewhere in my back, so I finally gave in and restarted the whole journey.

And yes, I did not regret this decision. The game is really fun, controls are intuitive and snappy, bosses and challenges are exactly that and the story is also quite interesting.
AND you can replay the game with another character, which is always something I really enjoy, especially since Nier Automata. You also experience the story from a different point of view in Ys Origins and learn more about what is going on and why characters did what they did. In my second run I am now at tower level 14 when I stopped.

I really like to continue and go back to Ys Origins again. When even grinding is fun and feels really good, a lot has been done well.

Time played: 20.2h | Achievements: 15%.

Interim 2020: Sorting my Pile of Shame.

Besides the recent longer posts, there are also other games I played in between; some of these I did complete, but more I did not. So for this Interim Report on the first half of 2020, I would like to briefly mention and reflect on my experiences in:

Tower of Time (completed)
Assassin’s Creed (stalled)
Warhammer 40k – Mechanicus (incompleted)
Elex (incompleted)
Quantum Break (completed)

Tower of Time (completed)

Tower of Time – Graphics and levels are really beautiful

This games is a mixture of a bit of Baldur’s Gate, Divinity Original Sin, and… well anything Infinity Engine’ish.

Story-wise the game is set in a dying world with a plague ravaging inhabitants and several races quarreling and struggling. A tower is discovered, but upside down stuck in the ground, and while you as the main character sit on its’ crystal throne, you send and follow your characters down to the bottom (which is the top) of the tower. And as the throne empoweres you tremendously, you are also capable to sway the mood of decisions in the party.

The game itself is beautiful and has some stunning scenery, characters are believable but behave sometimes erratic / unpredictable according to the choice mechanics in the game. Fights are on a good / challenging difficulty level with an interrupt / slow-down function to adjust your actions and movements during battle.

What really dragged me though was the more classic “tower level” design, which felt a bit like in Eye of the Beholder: You know there are twelve levels, so you slowly move forward to the end, level by level. So of course, every level has its own biome and specialities – some cooler, some colder. Strangely the tower levels become tremendously huge, the more you proceed downwards (which is upwards). It’s a magic tower – I get it! – but sometime it felt more like dragging everything out for more playtime.

The game overall is actually too long and becomes rather repetitive, but leaves a good taste after the final credits rolled. I sometimes really had to motivate myself to proceed further though …

Time played: 43h | Achievements: 56%

Assassin’s Creed

Well, after my first tilt with Assassin’s Creed Origins I thought a smaller AC game would do the trick and started at the beginning of everything.

I was so wrong.

As soon as the game hinted me to collect 100(!) rags (or flags?) per region, my motivation dwindled and quickly stopped. Why would you ask something like that from anybody? And yes, I get it – I don’t have to do it – but they are glowing everywhere and they need to be picked up and … …

I quickly uninstalled the game and my hopes for ever completing an AC game … ever! Nevertheless my return to AC:Origins was tremendously enjoyful and so I will probably also return to this one and do a very quick run through, just for the story.

No flags for this Assassin.

Time played: 5h

Warhammer 40k – Mechanicus

My screenshots are so unremarkable – please take a look at this wallpaper instead

This one came from my random selection process and I was actually really hyped to play it – something turn-based, something strategic, something… different!

But oh! … was that different.

There are some realms of lore I simply find no footing in. One is the Elder Scrolls and the other is Warhammer. This is not because both are boring or uninteresting, no – the opposite! They are just so lore-heavy, that I have the feeling I would never ever understand what the heck is going on and be able to follow the flow of history and relevance of events and characters.

So I tried to watch some videos (thanks Vitali!) but it just became more and more complicated. I could not even grasp the necessary vocabulary to understand what these people are talking about.

So I started and played some hours; the combat was quite ok, the progression too, but the overall feel, relevance or impact of what was happening here was completely lost to me. So I remained very disconnected to whatever I did there and never found an angle for moving forward. Also this constant bubbling tech-mumbo-jumbo became really annoying, so I quit.

Sorry Inquisitors, you will have to win this one without me.

Time played: 8h | Achievements: 17%

Elex

My first step into one of Pirania Bytes’ games and I thought I was prepared through reading and listening to reviews and impressions, but I was not.

You are some dude on a planet, which obviously seems to be a very harsh world, because round about everybody I ever met behaved like an asshole. And I mean everybody, including me, the main character. Strong words everywhere, strong choices as a reply, a quite unfamiliar progression of finding out what the heck you should actually do right now, a quirky UI that keeps you unnecessarily busy and a very strange overall storytelling, including side-quests. I understand, that this game focuses on a more open-worldish-emergent-story-telling approach, but it is just not my take of fun to get beaten up by everybody and everything in this game and by try & error find the right direction to move forward. I recognize the effort for exploration though, but I was more running away from everything than actually exploring.

I later read, that they tried to write the dialogues like they are delivered in a classic table-RPG session. Meaning amateurs trying to be tough, or play a character-type you are not familiar with or gamemasters trying to impose various social actors. And yes, everything made so much sense afterwards, and the voice actors (especially in German) really tried to pull this of like amateurs. Well, I hope they were. With many smiles I remembered from my own table-RPGs, how we played it out and voiced our characters.

All the above is then combined with very clunky movement and combat mechanics, which I never became really used to or comfortable with. Positioning towards the opponent was so difficult (or random?) that I often missed my target by some meters and was then attacked into my back and died – again.

I am definately too soft for a game by Pirania Byte. Elex just chewed me up and spit me out, nothing to gain for me here. Let’s move on.

Time played: 11h | Achievements: 12%

Quantum Break

After finishing Assassin’s Creed: Origins I wanted to play something with a tight story and not another 80+ hour game. So I found Quantum Break in my library and went straight in without much preparation.

The game has very nice graphics and is structured into episodes with real live acting in between (around 15-20 minutes). So you meet quite some known actors in a real and digital version and this was a very refreshing and needed change of pace after 100 hours running through Egypts’ dunes.

The story itself was quite good, not great, not average. Sometimes engaging, and more often running around picking up trash other people left around. At least the ‘trash’ was contributing a lot for delivering the story and it makes a lot of sense to read all this and watch all the videos and diary entries. Acting is really good and you can see that they are all professionals.

Gameplay mechanics are quite average though. The movement is clunky, jumping feels like 2008 and levels are very linear; at least this I did not mind much. What I did not like were the combat mechanics as these were very difiicult to control and target, so I turned off some auto-aiming in the settings to not become too annoyed. The skills are quite cool and when you manage to connect a flow, it feels really impactful and powerful.

Final bossfight was a catastrophe and I was terribly annoyed by the mechanics. I mean … how? why? I felt like a chicken running around all the time.

Overall quite nice game and a good recovery from AC:Origins’ rather sandy story progression.

Time played: 14h | Achievements: 78%

My Pile of Games – March 2020

The first post on surveying my pile of games can be found here. I will try to track changes – e.g. additions, completions, stalls, delays – and also update play times to keep my process a bit more transparent.

I also try to track playtimes a bit on various titles.

Update – 30.03.2020

Completed Code Vein (43h, 76%) – 29.03.2020
Stalled Division 2 – 03.03.2020
Stalled Monster Hunter World – Iceborne – 28.02.2020

Update – 07.03.2020

Started Code Vein (2,5h, 4%) – 03.03.2020
Started Division 2 – 18.02.2020
Started Monster Hunter World – Iceborne – 07.02.2020
Completed Darksiders: Warmastered Edition – 27.01.2020
Completed Middle-Earth: Shadow of War – 28.12.2019
Incompleted Destiny 2 – 10.12.2019

Steam

As I own an account there since 2004, the most relevant (and trackable) platform is of course Steam; so I pulled up some data from Steamdb.info to get a first overview:

Worth (w/o sales): 4.711€ | 4.002€
Games owned: 279 | 252
Games played: 91 (32%) | 81 (32%)
Hours on record: 3.490,7h | 2.762,5h
Time to finish everything: 2.666h or 111 days, 2 hours, 34 minutes
(before: 2.665h or 111 days, 1 hour, 40 minutes)
(courtesy of Steamleft.com)

Noteworthy new games added:

Crosscode
Frostpunk
Okami HD
Pathfinder: Kingmaker

Completed games from these 91 above mentioned are (hours of play and % unlocked achievements added) – new additions are marked bold:

Aliens: Colonial Marines (6h, 38%)
Battletech (61h, 37%)
Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons (4h, 100%)
Code Vein (43h, 76%)
Darksiders: Warmastered Edition (26h, 69%)
Dragon Age Origins: Ultimate Edition (105h)
Final Fantasy XIII (62h, 40%)
Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition (124h, 71%)
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (8h, 92%)
Mass Effect (32h)
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (33h, 61%)
Middle Earth: Shadow of War (71h, 65%)
Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (54h, 49%)
NieR: Automata (44h, 57%)
Ori and the Blind Forest (16h, 80%)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (29h, 27%)
Shadowrun Returns (17h)
Tales from the Borderlands (8h, 100%)
Tom Clancy’s The Division (131h) – service game, but completed
Tomb Raider (20h, 48%)
Tyranny (54h, 44%)
Wolf among us (9h, 85%)

Active games that I still play and want to either finish or pursue:

Stalled games I lost interest, but want to return to some day:

Aarklash Legacy (95min, 7%)
Bayonetta (50min, 4%)
Destiny 2 (95h, 69%) – just the Steam version
Divinity: Original Sin (50h, 31%)
Division 2
Elex (4h, 12%)
Final Fantasy XIV (1761,9h | 1381h)
Kingdoms of Amalur (3h, 2%)
Life is Strange (11h, 27%)
Monster Hunter World – Iceborne (192h, 48%)
Shadowrun: Dragonfall – Director’s Cut (5h, 10%)
Tales of Berseria (14h, 8%)
Tower of Time (7h, 19%)

Really want to play games in the upcoming future:

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
Edge of Eternity

Of course there are so much more games in this library that I want to play, and many that I will never play. There is quite an amount of gifted games in there, so not all these games have been bought.

Good old Games (GoG)

My account on GoG was created 2014 and I use this account not only to collect some romanticized games from my teenage years, but also to support GoG & CD Project Red with their own games, like Witcher and Gwent. My activity with GoG games mainly falls into the ‘Really want to play’ category, but somehow I never take this leap of faith.

Briefly some stats on my library and what has been played so far.

Games owned: 38
Games played: 3
Hours on record: 246h

Completed games include the following:

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Game of the Year Edition (175h, 61%)
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales (43h, 84%)

Active games that I currently play occasionally:

Gwent: The Witcher Card Game (28h, 54%)

Incompleted games:

Gwent: The Witcher Card Game (28h, 54%)

Really want to play games in the upcoming future:

Baldur’s Gate I & II
Battle Isle
Icewind Dale I & II
Neverwinter Nights I & II
Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition

Battle.net

Yes, I am a big Blizzard fan and I think their games always have (or more had) a very special attention to detail and an awesome gameplay loop. Their skills in delivering such experiences have dramatically waned of late, so I am not playing their games that much anymore.

Below an overview and an estimation of my playtimes. Maybe I will update this list, when I log into one of the games or subscribe later again.

Destiny 2 (approx. 100-160h)
Diablo 3 (approx. 1.200h)
Hearthstone (approx. 20h, mainly on iPad)
Heroes of the Storm (approx. 15-20h)
Overwatch (approx. 30-40h)
Starcraft 2 (approx. 120h, the only game I still play once in a while)
World of Warcraft (played from 2006 – 2010 as my main game; should be several thousand hours… holy sh**!)

Origin & Uplay

I hardly own games exclusively available on these two platforms. Still noteworthy are the following games:

Division 2
Dragon Age 2 (2h, still want to finish one day)
Dragon Age 3 (not started, want to play it, but so many people say I should not bother…)
Star Wars – The Old Republic (around 500-800h)

So I made a Spreadsheet…

Considering my previous resolution, I would I say I did not that bad.

Still, a new year seems to call for a new resultion, and as such I did what probably everybody who is considering new years’ resolutions is doing: I reflected on my last months and how to move forward.

Good things accomplished

From August to December I actually completed a whooping amount of three(!) games:

The Wolf among us (9 hours, 85% achievements)
The first Telltale-Formula game by … uhm Telltale. Quite a good game with a good story, but some drag in the middle. Loved the atmosphere though.
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (8 hours, 92% achievements)
Visually expceptional with a mind-bending story, but with ridiculous combat mechanics.
Middle-Earth – Shadow of War (71 hours, 65% achievements)
More of the same from the first part Shadow of Mordor. But, as with all open world sequels, more of everything does not make a better game experience, which turned this game into a tedious grindfest instead.

All three games were very nice on various levels, considering the different types of their genres. Especially Shadow of War was long overdue on my list, as I liked the first one and wanted to finish the series for quite a while.

Additionally, I also played a lot of Final Fantasy XIV (300 hours since end of June) and Destiny 2 (94 hours since October), but with both being service games, this somehow does not count, although a lot has been accomplished in both of them.

Bad things burned out

I had to skip Dragon Quest XI, which i really wanted to play, but could not find any motivation for. In addition, neither did I re-start Life is Strange nor Shadowrun: Dragonfall, and I fear these two have to wait a bit longer.

What became very intense again was me entering my viscious cycle around mid of December. Especially Destiny 2‘s season grind was very aweful. It felt like so much work to do every day and so much to achieve in various game modes every day, that I had no motivation to play at all anymore and really needed some change again. My burn-out from service games is so strong currently, that I do not even want to go back to Final Fantasy XIV anymore… and this really is something!

A new re-established Resolution

Considering these last months I at least had the feeling, that my chosen games were probably too ambitious. I felt something was amiss. So, when I had a talk with my brother last week, he casually mentioned during a talk about what we played recently, that “it would be best to just start with all games from the letter ‘A’ and then move down. Just do not decide.”

And then, somewhere – somehow – something, inside me, like a bell, started resonating.

“This is IT!” I cried. “This is how I will proceed with my pile of shame and finally get started. I just get handle the choice variable better!”* And so I pondered on and thought about, how to finally re-start great again, how to finally get control back and not side-step around and get nothing done.

After a short while it was already clear, that it would not be helpful to start with the first game in the alphabet, simply because this would take forever to come down to e.g. the Witcher games. Or, even worse, I would have to play through all Assassin’s Creed games in a row!

No, something needed doing, and here – big reveal – is the result of my pondering:

All games on Steam were categorized as followed:
- Games I really want to play (to-play),
- Games I completed (complete),
- Games I probably will start (maybe),
- Games I will start somewhen/never (somewhen), and
- Games I do not care/ignore (don’t want to play)
Then I transferred all these games alphabetically into a spreadsheet.
I also added all other games from GOG, Origin, Uplay, and PSN.
This resulted in a list of 106 games across all platforms. Keep in mind, these are all games I really would like to play!
Then I divided this list into quarters, resulting in three columns with 27 and one column with 25 games. You can find my list of games below.

1st Quarter	2nd Quarter	3rd Quarter	4th Quarter
Aarklash: Legacy	Darksiders 1	Last of Us	Soul Calibur VI
Assassin’s Creed	Darksiders 2	Legend of Grimrock	Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1
Assassin’s Creed II	Deus Ex – Human Revolution	The Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky	Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood	Deus Ex Mankind Divided	Life is Strange	Steins:Gate
Assassin’s Creed Revelations	Devil May Cry 5	Lightning Returns	The Surge
Assassin’s Creed III	Divinity Original Sin	Mass Effect 2	Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet
Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag	DmC Devil May Cry (4)	Mass Effect 3	Sword Art Online Hollow Realization
Assassin’s Creed Liberation	Dragon Age 2	Mass Effect Andromeda	Sword Art Online Lost Song
Assassin’s Creed Origins	Dragon Age 3	Metal Gear Rising	Tales of Berseria
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey	Dragon Quest XI	Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zero	Tales of Symphonia
Assassin’s Creed Rogue	The Dwarves	Metal Gear Solid The Phantom Protocol	Tales of Zestiria
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles China	Earth Defense Force 4.1	Mirror’s Edge	To the Moon
Baldur’s Gate 1	Edge of Eternity	Neverwinter Nights	Tower of Time
Baldur’s Gate 2	Elex	A New Beginning	Transistor
Bastion	Final Fantasy IV	Nex Machina	Trine 2
Bayonetta	Final Fantasy VI	Phantom Doctrine	Valkyria Chronicles
Blackguards	Final Fantasy IX	Pillars of Eternity	Warhammer 40000 Mechanicus
Blackguards 2	Final Fantasy XIII-2	Pillars of Eternity 2	The Witcher 1
Blashphemeous	Hitman	Planescape Torment	The Witcher 2
The Bureau – XCOM Declassified	Hollow Knight	Quantum Break	X-Morph Defense
Child of Light	Horizon Zero Dawn	Ruiner	XCOM enemy Unknown
Code Vein	Hyperdimensional Neptunia re:Birth	Satellite Reign	Yakuza 0
Crosscode	Icewind Dale 1	Seven	Yakuza Kiwami
The Dark Eye – Chains of Satinav	Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth	Shadow of the Tomb Raider	Ys Origin
Darks Souls	Kingdom Come Deliverance	Shadow Run Dragonfall	Ys The Oath in Felghana
Dark Souls 2	Kingdoms of Amalur	Shadowrun Hong Kong
Dark Souls 3	Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light	Sleeping Dogs

Ok. So what’s deal now:
In order to find the – next game – I will play, I will start with the first row and am now comfortably provided with a selection of four games from my to-play category. From these four games I will then simply choose one, as chances are high that some games are selected, which I had forgotten a long time ago.

So from my first set of games (first row) – Aarklash: Legacy, Darksiders 1, Last of Us, and Soul Calibur VI – I chose Darksiders 1, and already started playing. And it’s really a lot of fun – I wanted to play this for such a long time anyway.

But of course some considerations still need to be made:

When a game from a series is chosen, no matter which part, I will always start with the first part of the series.
When a game is completed, it will be removed from the table and therefor the order within the table will change.
In order to choose the next game, I consider two variants:
1. Always stay in the first row, and complete games within this row only. Games will change anyway with the elimination of the completed game from the list. Only the first row will only change, unless I finally re-start playing Aarklash: Legacy. This gives me some breathing time until the first Assassin’s Creed comes up …
2. I will not always start from the first row. I could consider another variable e.g. the current date for the selection of the row (even though I do not have enough rows for each day).

So far, this should be my modus operandi for this year and I will make adjustments as I see fit along the way. But with enjoying Darksiders 1 so much right now, I feel rather confident (and a bit proud!), that this mode will be more helpful in my endeavor – Recapturing my Pile of Shame.

*The dialogue with my brother has been re-framed for dramatic purposes.

Game selection process.

Update: 09. February 2020

Deleted Aarklash: Legacy (moved to maybe list)
Added Darksiders 3 (found on PS4)
Added Shadow Tactics
Added Frostpunk
Added Okami HD
Added Pathfinder Kingmaker

How to select my next game

In order to find the next game I decided for the following process for my selection. My libraries have been pooled and categorized in the following scheme:

All games on Steam were categorized as followed:
- Games I really want to play (to-play),
- Games I completed (complete),
- Games I probably will start (maybe),
- Games I will start somewhen/never (somewhen), and
- Games I do not care/ignore (don’t want to play)
Then I transferred all these games alphabetically into a spreadsheet.
I also added all other games from GOG, Origin, Uplay, and PSN.
This resulted in a list of 106 games across all platforms. Keep in mind, these are all games I really would like to play!
Then I divided this list into quarters, resulting in three columns with 27 and one column with 25 games. You can find my list of games below.

In order to find the – next game – I will play, I will start with the first row and am now comfortably provided with a selection of four games from my to-play category. From these four games I will then simply choose one, as chances are high that some games are selected, which I had forgotten a long time ago.

1st Quarter	2nd Quarter	3rd Quarter	4th Quarter
Assassin’s Creed	Deus Ex – Human Revolution	The Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky	Soul Calibur VI
Assassin’s Creed II	Deus Ex Mankind Divided	Life is Strange	Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 1
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood	Devil May Cry 5	Lightning Returns	Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2
Assassin’s Creed Revelations	Divinity Original Sin	Mass Effect 2	Steins:Gate
Assassin’s Creed III	DmC Devil May Cry (4)	Mass Effect 3	The Surge
Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag	Dragon Age 2	Mass Effect Andromeda	Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet
Assassin’s Creed Liberation	Dragon Age 3	Metal Gear Rising	Sword Art Online Hollow Realization
Assassin’s Creed Origins	Dragon Quest XI	Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zero	Sword Art Online Lost Song
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey	The Dwarves	Metal Gear Solid The Phantom Protocol	Tales of Berseria
Assassin’s Creed Rogue	Earth Defense Force 4.1	Mirror’s Edge	Tales of Symphonia
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles China	Edge of Eternity	Neverwinter Nights	Tales of Zestiria
Baldur’s Gate 1	Elex	A New Beginning	To the Moon
Baldur’s Gate 2	Final Fantasy IV	Nex Machina	Tower of Time
Bastion	Final Fantasy VI	Okami HD	Transistor
Bayonetta	Final Fantasy IX	Pathfinder Kingmaker	Trine 2
Blackguards	Final Fantasy XIII-2	Phantom Doctrine	Valkyria Chronicles
Blackguards 2	Frostpunk	Pillars of Eternity	Warhammer 40000 Mechanicus
Blashphemeous	Hitman	Pillars of Eternity 2	The Witcher 1
The Bureau – XCOM Declassified	Hollow Knight	Planescape Torment	The Witcher 2
Child of Light	Horizon Zero Dawn	Quantum Break	X-Morph Defense
Code Vein	Hyperdimensional Neptunia re:Birth	Ruiner	XCOM enemy Unknown
Crosscode	Icewind Dale 1	Satellite Reign	Yakuza 0
The Dark Eye – Chains of Satinav	Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth	Seven	Yakuza Kiwami
Darks Souls	Kingdom Come Deliverance	Shadow of the Tomb Raider	Ys Origin
Dark Souls 2	Kingdoms of Amalur	Shadowrun: Dragonfall	Ys The Oath in Felghana
Dark Souls 3	Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light	Shadowrun: Hong Kong
Darksiders 2	Last of Us	Shadow Tactics
Darksiders 3	Legend of Grimrock	Sleeping Dogs

But of course some considerations still need to be made:

When a game from a series is chosen, no matter which part, I will always start with the first part of the series.
When a game is completed, it will be removed from the table and therefor the order within the table will change.
In order to choose the next game, I consider two variants:
1. Always stay in the first row, and complete games within this row only. Games will change anyway with the elimination of the completed game from the list. Only the first row will only change, unless I finally re-start playing Aarklash: Legacy. This gives me some breathing time until the first Assassin’s Creed comes up …
2. I will not always start from the first row. I could consider another variable e.g. the current date for the selection of the row (even though I do not have enough rows for each day).

Intentions vs achievments over this summer

Oh well… so much for my proclamations and what I wanted to achieve game-wise over the summer.
So boasted to recapture my pile of shame, and as result I did nothing of what I boldly proclaimed.
Although, not true! I DID start Hellblade and I did start Wolf among us. I just did not finish both. And there is only one game to blame:

Final Fantasy XIV – Shadowbringers

What an awesome expansion, what an awesome MMO. I got so hooked and added 330h from start of July until the writing of this sentence. Unbelievable. I am shocked.

Good thing is though, that I reached my first main goals and will take easier strides now, as it feels more like walking downhill now. Which is a good thing … I guess.

So what is up in the next weeks to come?

I will probably branch out into Destiny 2 – Shadowkeep with two friends of mine and enjoy time there, next to FFXIV. I will also try to finish Hellblade (not that much time left) and Wolf among us (stuck in Act II) and see how far I can proceed. I will not start Dragon Quest XI this year – this feels impossible.

For the blog itself I will unburden myself a bit and try to comprise one month into a recap, which will probably be easier on the writing, as work will only increase in the next months.

So let’s look … and see.

Call for Recapture

Today I announced – sponeanously and without considering the consequences – that I will not buy any more games for the whole rest of this year.

So this is what may happen to you during an inconspicious coffee break.

Funny enough – during my proclamation – I really believed in the achievement of this recapture, so let’s see how I can make this reality.

#KingofmyPileOfShame

My second sentence after this optimistic proclamation above was, that ‘I have so many awesome games in my library, that there is no need to buy any new games‘. So let’s see, what is in there and what could be a feasable(!) list for the next months.

Dragon Quest XI – Echoes of an Elusive Age
The Wolf among us
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

From my list of stalled games, these are highly overdue:

Life is Strange
Shadowrun: Dragonfall

Next to all this I will restart Final Fantasy XIV with the new Shadowbringers extension, which will definately keep gnawing on my free play time.

So it is set! Better a resolution in mid-year, than at the New Year! What could possible go wrong? I wonder…

Incompleting Monster Hunter World

Oh wait… but can you actually – complete – Monster Hunter World? Of course not… but I reached a certain point of completeness, and this point was reached surprisingly sooner than expected. Funny enough, …

Oh wait… but can you actually – complete – Monster Hunter World? Of course not… but I did reach a certain point of completeness, and this point was reached surprisingly sooner than I had anticipated. Funny enough, some days before reaching this point, I was very enthusiastic about this game, even commented while playing “This is such an awesome game! Hunting is so much fun!” or “I hardly feel the grind, and I am still very motivated!”
Well… obviously, something happened. But what? And what did trigger this sudden realization?

My early story so far

I purchased the game on August 8^th, 2018 via Steam closely to when it released, which was just one day later (snatched ‘dem pre-order goodies!). At the beginning, I played leisurely at my own pace, struggling with the controls and the massive overflow of not well explained information and learning to wield some big weapons. Mostly I played with my kids in the backseat, so they decided which Monster to hunt and how to proceed, which was a lot of fun! We really enjoyed the time of around 40h, stretched over several months, until I stalled around December 2018. I was never really “good” at the game and I did not care much, as my Hunter Rank (HR5) until then showed.

Still, I was not really satisfied with my gaming experience, as I knew that the game offers way more challenging encounters and way more mechanics I wanted to explore further. In addition, not being a big fan of anonymous multiplayer experiences, no one else in my immediate surrounding was interested in joining the game, so there was not much reason to play along anymore.

A second wind

This changed, when my working colleague proudly announced during a coffee break that he bought the game in the last sale (in May) and planned to play this game enthusiastically (compensating for and recovering from his World of Warcraft depression). So together, we started playing again and it was so(!) much fun together, that I also committed a lot of time into it, investing almost 100h in the last 5 weeks or so. Even another colleague joined us, setting a rather robust group of three. Now I am HR50, completed the strange story (wait… story?) of the game and unlocked the next equipment gamma tier with Kulve Taroth and the whole Tempered Monster experience.

What struck me most until this point was the amazing gameplay loop of Monster Hunter. This was my first MH game and I never really understood the fan culture surrounding the franchise, but then… then I finally got it.

The pacing of progression is phenomenal. Every upgrade is not too far away from your grasp at this rather early stage of the game. The Monsters always yield the exact right amount of materials to upgrade your weapons and armor in order to keep you going. There is just some amount of such’n’such bones missing? – let’s just go hunt an Anjanath! I am missing this’n’that tooth? – let’s hunt a Diabolos!

Monster fights are FIGHTS. The game communicates very openly, that you are prepared to take the challenge, or you are not. Monsters are unforgiving, that you can maybe escape one-shot mechanics, but are not efficient in a way, that you deal enough damage to finally overcome the Monster in the later fighting phases (especially Elder Dragons). Learning to read the Monsters and to foresee their pattern (without being able to always predict it) keeps you on your toes and makes you realize that your jaw feels sore after the fight, simply of being so tense and into it.

Repetition is not a big deal. Of course, you will grind and – of course – you will do the same bounties and missions over and over and over and over and over again. However, Monsters are not always acting in the same way and the environment has its tiny interplay and interaction in every hunt you engage. This will let you have challenging fights and individual experiences when hunting.

The detailled environment is just amazing. I am not talking about graphics quality, but the detailed environment that supports the immersion and contributes to fighting in a huge arena, with various tricks at your disposal. Not always did we remember all the traps and bolders around us, but when we did, it was always very rewarding to make use of them.

Multiplayer, but not multiplayer, and voice. The game got so much better, when playing together. I am used to play alone in online games, simply because of my limited play-time in the evening and my often abrupt end of play-sessions. In MH though, the game made so much more “sense” when playing together via voice. Arena fights were so much fun, unrelated to the type of Monster, but simply the shared experience of trapping, luring, and cursing over the Monster’s ass**** behavior, finalized by bold claims of victory.

Ultimately, I was transfixed on getting the next weapon or armor upgrade, on throwing more time on whichever Monster comes or whatever event happens, on completing the Witcher event and farming Ciri’s armor, because … Ciri!? Witcher?! Megaman?!

Incompletement

It did not come to pass and a sudden urge to stop playing manifested, which may be best described as some sort of inceptive hunch, that whispered in my ear: Shhht! Hey, you! You actually completed the game, didn’t you?

Followed by rather obvious questions of reason:

Why would you like to and need to grind more? And for what really? Isn’t that all a big waste of time? There is so much other stuff to do with your time! I mean: check your game library?
Look on how many materials you need for the next upgrade; besides: what is the next upgrade anyway? What is the best upgrade? Let’s look for a reddit guide or a video…
Kulve Taroth raid, really? With 16 other hunters? Oh, we know how this will end: You will faint cart your group out of the game and then you will have to rely on the rest of the hunters to somehow finish this… Good times! What an experience… oh, it only last until June 6^th?

Sometimes I wonder, if too much content is a good thing. Sometimes I wonder, if you can spin games forever, and they are still enjoyably fun for me.

Monster Hunter World does an excellent job in progressing and leading you to the ultimate grind – and I did not even get this far! But still, the grind is not the issue. The story is so absurd in this game, that I do not even dare to think too much about the ‘What?‘, ‘Why?!‘ and ‘WTFs!!!?‘ in it, and I wonder if there lies some reason for my sudden loss of motivation. That not the grind is the problem, but the undirected-meaningless grind. Meaningless does not only mean story-induced, but also goal-bound meaninglessness.

What is the next goal and where can I find it?
Does a game with self set goals give me a rewarding experience?
Is the mechanic enough to keep me going?

My friends still love the game and they will probably continue to progress further and have lots of fun (one reached HR70+ already); for me, well, it lost the appeal completely with this awkward combination of lack of story and lack of comprehensible / reasonable goals. I envy my friends for it, because somehow, I still want to go forward and progress further, but I do not see any reason why I should do that and even sink another hour into it…

Ultimately, the Monster, that is Monster Hunter World, became too big too hunt for me; and there is no way of a capture in the end.

Stalled, because of a noticable absence of story and no clear goals for continuing the grind after the core game experience.
The Incompletionist

My Pile of Games

I am registered at Battle.net, GoG, Humble Bundle, and of course Steam with active accounts and mainly buy (or am gifted) games on these platforms. I also had to register on Origin and Uplay for some games, because publishers said so.

Recent updates

Finished the story in Battletech – 10.06.2019
Incompleted Monster Hunter World – 01.06.2019

Steam

As I own an account there since 2004, the most relevant (and trackable) platform is of course Steam; so I pulled up some data from Steamdb.info to get a first overview:

Worth: 4.002€ (1.228€ with sales)
Games owned: 252
Games played: 81 (32%)
Hours on record: 2.762,5h
Time to finish everything: 2.665h or 111 days, 1 hour, 40 minutes (courtesy of Steamleft.com)

Completed games from these 81 above mentioned are (hours of play and % unlocked achievements added):

Aliens: Colonial Marines (6h, 38%)
Battletech (61h, 37%)
Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons (4h, 100%)
Dragon Age Origins: Ultimate Edition (105h)
Final Fantasy XIII (62h, 40%)
Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition (124h, 71%)
Mass Effect (32h)
Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (33h, 61%)
Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (54h, 49%)
NieR: Automata (44h, 57%)
Ori and the Blind Forest (16h, 80%)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (29h, 27%)
Shadowrun Returns (17h)
Tales from the Borderlands (8h, 100%)
Tom Clancy’s The Division (131h) – service game, but completed
Tomb Raider (20h, 48%)
Tyranny (54h, 44%)

Active games that I still play and want to either finish or pursue:

Final Fantasy XIV (1381h)

Stalled games I lost interest, but want to finish some day:

Aarklash Legacy (95min, 7%)
Bayonetta (50min, 4%)
Divinity: Original Sin (50h, 31%)
Kingdoms of Amalur (3h, 2%)
Life is Strange (11h, 27%)
Monster Hunter World (135h, 58%)
Shadowrun: Dragonfall – Director’s Cut (5h, 10%)
Tales of Berseria (14h, 8%)
Tower of Time (7h, 19%)

Really want to play games in the upcoming future:

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Middle Earth: Shadow of War

Good old Games (GoG)

Briefly some stats on my library and what has been played so far.

Games owned: 38
Games played: 3
Hours on record: 246h

Completed games include the following:

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Game of the Year Edition (175h, 61%)
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales (43h, 84%)

Active games that I currently play occasionally:

Gwent: The Witcher Card Game (28h, 54%)

Really want to play games in the upcoming future:

Baldur’s Gate I & II
Battle Isle
Icewind Dale I & II
Neverwinter Nights I & II
Planescape: Torment: Enhanced Edition

Battle.net

Below an overview and an estimation of my playtimes. Maybe I will update this list, when I log into one of the games or subscribe later again.

Destiny 2 (approx. 100-160h)
Diablo 3 (approx. 1.200h)
Hearthstone (approx. 20h, mainly on iPad)
Heroes of the Storm (approx. 15-20h)
Overwatch (approx. 30-40h)
Starcraft 2 (approx. 120h, the only game I still play once in a while)
World of Warcraft (played from 2006 – 2010 as my main game; should be several thousand hours… holy sh**!)

Origin & Uplay

I hardly own games exclusively available on these two platforms. Still noteworthy are the following games:

Dragon Age 2 (2h, still want to finish one day)
Dragon Age 3 (not started, want to play it, but so many people say I should not bother…)
Star Wars – The Old Republic (around 500-800h)

Look at that size…

As you can see, I played (and still play) a lot of hours and actually have not accomplished that much; which probably is giving me this strong feeling of incompletedness, I am so much bothered with.

I will try to keep this post updated and as accurate as possible. Whenever I write on specific games I will of course link them through here.