+0 Mullet Madjack
I enjoyed playing this roguelike boomer shooter, even though it caused my Xbox to restart a couple of times and the ending is broken, so I never got the new sneakers. Having grown up through the 90s,the nostalgia was high. It’s worth checking out on Game Pass, but I wouldn’t buy it in the state it’s in however.
+1 New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe (Switch)
Total = 0
Did I miss the scoreboard update yesterday? I was excited to see @Searsy82 out of the negative, with me close behind!
+1 The Punisher (Arcade/Marvel Vs Capcom Collection)
Total = 1
(trying to work in some low hanging fruit to get the ball rolling a bit)
+1 Black Mesa (Steam)
This is basically a fan-made remake of the first Half-Life, with some added content.
The remake part is absolutely solid for the most part. I enjoyed it. But then you get to the final couple of “re-imagined” levels and they start to drag on and on and on, basically doubling the playing time, while you go around in circles (almost literally) with little variety. An apparently common game-breaking bug during that portion of the game (lost about 30 minutes) and some frustrating controller aiming issues left a slightly bitter taste in my mouth in the end.
First half: 8/10
Second half: 4/10
If you have this in your backlog, enjoy it until you get to the “Interloper” level and then consider quitting. (But that’s not how we do it here, is it?) 
It might not be Monday but close! Sorry, was very busy yesterday but here’s the update for the past week. We have a new participant with @AbhorredGunt joining the fray! Good amount of completions this week too, keep it up everyone
The Leaderboard:
@Knottian 16.5
@MasterLeePhD 14.5
@Zip 8.5
@profjjj 7
@SilentJay76 4.5
.@ vrinn 4
.@ Mort 1
.@ Widey85 1
@APOPHIS1989 -4.5
+1 Super Mario 3D World
Total = 2
+1 Super Mario 3D World: Bowser’s Fury
+1 Captain Toad Treasure Tracker
Total = 4
Monday! (I did not forget this time!) Not much action this past week but @Searsy82 is climbing up the leaderboard fast.
The Leaderboard:
I stopped playing so many retro games, lol.
Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire +1
What was supposed to be a short golden path playthrough to freshen up on Eora lore before jumping in to Avowed turned into…something else. It’s such a good game, I got sucked into it deep. I played the base game on PC back in the day, but didn’t go too deep into it then for various rl reasons. Picked it up when the console version released but you know how it is with backlogs…
The game is huge with the real meat being in the sidequests and the exploration of the archipelago of Deadfire. I ran into many things I hadn’t seen in my old playthrough, just the city of Neketaka alone holds more content than many full games. There’s so much to do! And I did pretty much all of it 
Almost everything is fully voiced too, mainly by the Critical Role cast which is very nice with some excellent performances. Music is excellent too.
The combat is great, I play RTwP as the gods intended, with a lot of options for builds. I did my playthrough as a Cipher Ascendant, which was new to me as I rarely go for a caster class the first time around, and it was very fun. There’s a lot of party management both with levelling and gear, but that is part of the fun after all. You have to turn up the difficulty a bit though if you are “good” at these things, as it’s not the hardest game overall (with some boss exceptions). There is the option to play in turn based, but I found it not really suitable for the game and certainly not balanced around it.
The weakest part is the naval combat, which I found tedious and ended up just boarding everything to get some real combat instead. But the ship management, exploration etc. is a fun addition.
Companions are great, and there’s plenty of them too. You can build a lot of different parties, both in who you bring and how you mold them. There’s a good amount of interactions with them and banter between them, and I ended up caring for most of them which is the sign of a great game. The game hints in the journal if a specific character is recommended to bring on a specific quest that is relevant to them, a very nice thing. They don’t always get along with eachother either, and depending on how you act in game some will react both to your actions and each others behaviour. They can even leave you or refuse to adventure with certain members! Very nice.
Story is excellent, even though the main story isn’t very big or long in itself but it drives everything you do and it’s really good. There’s several different factions to work with, or against, and it’s all tied together really well. The world is filled with lore and there’s much to discover, to read and to do.
Maybe it’s hard to tell, but I loved this game It’s one of those games where you at the start of a gaming session get goose bumps at the main menu screen, if that makes sense?
Beast of Winter +0.5
The classic “winter expansion” in a way. This one involves a mysterious ice float and a hidden temple frozen in the ice. Some tough fights, undead dragons and gods mixed in with religious fanatics. There was some very cool time related puzzles I very much enjoyed! The boss fight was epic.
Seeker, Slayer, Survivor +0.5
Another classic expansion trope: The Arena. But this was so much more, even though there was plenty of varied fights to get into. The overarching story was good and engaging, making everything make sense. If you are into the combat, this is a must play.
Forgotten Sanctum +0.5
The endgame expansion. Yet another expansion woven well into the world with a fresh story and some new and familiar faces. This was hard as nails at times, I spent hours in the last fight… Holy shit. But a fun adventure with some good dungeoning and some very cool gear, especially for a wizard/caster. The Oracle of Wael will hunt my nightmares for a while…
Another, quiet, week… At least I got some points for once!
The Leaderboard:
@Knottian 16.5
@MasterLeePhD 14.5
.@ Zip 8.5
@profjjj 7
.@ TechWendigo 5
@SilentJay76 4.5
@vrinn 4
.@ Mort 3.5
@Widey85 1
@APOPHIS1989 -4.5
+0 The Plucky Squire (PS+) - Gorgeous platformer with some unique mechanics. Recommended!
+0 Open Roads (Game Pass) - Just a quick completion before it left GP.
+0 DMC Devil May Cry (360) - I didn’t enjoy this one and quit after ~6 hours. Couldn’t get into the overly complicated controls.
+0 Who is Awesome (Google Play Pass) - Decent mini-game challenge for short sessions. Got the achievement completion, which was a bonus.
+1 Dust: An Elysian Tale (360) - Metroidvania hack-and-slash platformer with unappealing character design and voices (basically anime, which is not my cup of tea,) but solid gameplay.
Very quiet period it seems… I blame it on Game Pass!
The Leaderboard:
.@ Knottian 16.5
@MasterLeePhD 14.5
@Zip 8.5
@profjjj 7
@SilentJay76 5.5
@vrinn 4
.@ Mort 3.5
@Widey85 1
.@ AbhorredGunt 0
@APOPHIS1989 -4.5
I would have a +1 but I cant beat the final boss in Metroid Dread. My old man reflexes just arent up to the task.
That’s how I’ve been feeling going through the Ninja Gaiden remasters… and they’re the Sigma versions, so it makes me feel even worse lol.
Beat the original Xbox version 20 years ago without issue too 
I haven’t even tried them simply to spare myself the shame.
Same. I don’t think my 57-year old reflexes are up to the task. My blood pressure goes up just thinking about it. Ha.
In all seriousness, I may give it a shot at some point, but I definitely have to psych myself up to try. It took me weeks to gin up the courage to try Elden Ring, then I managed to play (i.e. overlevel) my way through that game eventually. Ha
Yeah, Ill give them a whirl. Probably sometime before the end of the year since NG4 is coming.
I had never even come close to finishing a From Soft game but 1000/1000’d Elden Ring (and beat Shadow of the Erdtree)
Yep too much new stuff - I’ve almost finished Avowed and going to try Blue Prince before starting AC Shadows (which I bought so negative for but I’ll take it at the same time I sum up Avowed).
All Game Pass or new so not going great for the backlog lol apart from I’m not far off the end of Rise of the Golden Idol so that might keep me above zero until I finish AC Shadows…