XboxEra's 2025 Backlog Challenge |OT| Games...So Many Games!

+.5 Lake: Season’s Greetings

I took @Widey85 advice from last year and played the seasons greeting dlc for Lake and enjoyed it. It’s set about 9 months earlier than the main game and you play as Meredith’s father delivering the mail at the end of 1985. Good extra story and I liked the visual changes for winter, and I think they added maybe one or two more songs. Still think my biggest complaint is the need for more music variety. Had some fun storylines involving characters in the later story along with a handful of new people. This was a great addition and nice to see it expand the story a bit. Honestly might have enjoyed it slightly more than the original game.

5 Likes

This game is still on my wish list… Sounds great.

3 Likes

+0 Escape Academy (Game Pass)

Finished up the main part, not going to do the title update. Had played most of this through a while back with family but had a handful of achievements to go mop up including the ones for solving things in under so many moves and collectibles.

It honestly was an interesting game, I probably would have bought the DLC for it if it had been a little cheaper or if the sale for it had been during the break instead of back in September.

You start off in an escape room that’s pretty simple, and then you have another escape after that and discover that it’s an entrance exam to the Escape Academy. There is a bit of rivalry with another student and a series of decent challenges with a bit of story thrown in over the course of your school year. There’s a bit of a twist toward the end which I had wondered about. Good fun, and I think being in Game Pass was probably the right move for this.

+0 When the Past was Around (Games with Gold)

This is a very short title dealing with losing a loved one and dealing with objects that trigger memories of them. Short and sweet, I had a few minor gripes about some of the music (things like music notes of different lengths / grouped in a pair) only sounding like every other note when you popped it, and their visual representation of bowing for a violin not matching up at all with the music that was playing…) but I suspect most people wouldn’t have that issue. :slight_smile: Mechanics are mostly point and click and as I said it’s not a long experience.

+1 The Big Con

This is in Game Pass but I picked it up during the break, thought it would be a bit longer than it turned out to be. Had a great story about a girl in the 90s getting ready for band camp who discovers that her mom owes a lot of money to loan sharks and is going to lose her video store. She meets a guy who teaches her how to pickpocket and decides to go cross country with him to steal the money to pay off her mom’s debts.

Gameplay was somewhat repetitive but introduced a few new things. Mostly you went around picking pockets and stealing items from people or finding objects in the various locations. Had a couple of good twists to it as well, and I enjoyed. I did run into a few issues with items not showing up and having to close out of the game a couple of times in order to find them, but nothing that made it impossible to finish.

5 Likes

I meant to also note that @APOPHIS1989 has a good review of this one over on TrueAchievements: The Big Con Reviews

4 Likes

Thanks for the shout! That’s not even my best review!

3 Likes

+0 Crime Boss: Rockay City (PS+ Premium)

Didn’t like it at first, but it sucked me in and I ended up with over 20 hours played. The heist gameplay is decent fun, but there isn’t enough of it, as most of your time is spent strategizing and planning your army attacks to take over other territories. The voice acting is remarkably bad considering the cast of Hollywood stars. But it’s kinda fun in its own way, if you don’t take it too seriously. Minus points for yet another game hurt by being a rogue-like. I feel like a regular campaign would’ve suited it much better.

+1 Metro Last Light Redux (Steam)

More of the same as the first Metro - which is a good thing. A very atmospheric game with (mostly) exceptional voice acting. I initially finished the campaign before Christmas and was gonna leave it at that. Then I decided to go back and do the bonus missions after getting back home. Unfortunately they’re incredibly hard and frustrating compared to the campaign, so I quit again. But after my time in Rockay City, the Metro called to me once more and I managed to grab another 8 achievements. But now I think I’m finally done. The remaining achievements are mostly for those bonus missions and some long, equally frustrating stealth missions. No thanks.

5 Likes
  • +.5 - Dragon Age Origins: Leliana’s Song (X360) - Going through all my Dragon Age games/DLC, I discovered I haven’t even gone through half of the expansions of the original. This was definitely a shorter DLC, but it gave us some great background info on Leliana, one of my favorite characters in the series. Solid experience overall, if a bit short.

Total = 2.5

3 Likes

The older Bioware games had some really good DLC, this one I liked a lot. They really expanded on characters, events etc. that didn’t really fit into the main games.

I think they have none planned for DA:TV though, bit boring if I may say so.

3 Likes

Couldn’t agree more. I generally think DLC/Expansions have suffered across the board the last few years. It’s probably why I’ve been so impressed by Shattered Space, because it offers the level of content I expect from expansions :man_shrugging:

3 Likes

Yes, Shattered Space hit a lot of those notes! Very good example indeed, with more on the Va’Ruun and Andreja got to shine a bit.

3 Likes

Frontline: Fuel of War +1

It’s 2024, and the world’s energy assets are depleting. Those pesky Russians and Chinese are at it again! It’s a battle for the world’s resources, and Team America is ready for action. The game probably has some of the worst button layouts for any FPS game I’ve ever played. How things have improved is mind-bending, and we all take it for granted. The game is basically Battlefield with a 7-hour campaign. I decided to boot up Multiplayer and was flabbergasted to see that 6 people were still playing it in 2025!

5 Likes
  • +1 - Sonic Advance 2 (GBA) - yet another gem I’ve owned for 20 years and just never beaten (the majority of my 360 collection says hell), and after loving the first Sonic Advance last year, I just had to go through this one. Just like the last, I genuinely consider this one of the best 2D entries in the series, and aside from the difficulty spikes, I would say its level design is even better than the first. Also, the character unlock mechanic is much more engaging as you unlock them as you progress, forcing you to play through the first time as Sonic (if you want to get all the characters and run through their play throughs like I did). Each character genuinely changes your approach to levels and bosses, and it just adds a ton of replay value. 9/10

Total = 3.5

4 Likes

+1 Nobody Wants to Die - cool walking sim

5 Likes

Hey! I take that as you want to join us for this years challenge too? :wink:

Welcome back!

3 Likes

First week done! Already the points are starting to come in, we are off to a good start. Very nice to see so many participate again this year :slight_smile:

The Leaderboard:

  1. @Knottian 3.5

  2. @MasterLeePhD 3

  3. @Zip 1.5

  4. @SilentJay76 1

  5. @vrinn 1

  6. @ACyberRazorCut

  7. @APOPHIS1989

  8. .@ Mort

  9. @profjjj

  10. @Searsy82

  11. @Widey85

7 Likes

Lol I made the mistake of starting the year with Dragon Age: The Veilguard…

3 Likes

-1-3? Serious Sam Collection

It’s listed as a single game on Xbox, but it combines three different games. I don’t know what the points should be.

1 Like

Took a look, and it’s three games so -3 is how I would count it. (And of course you get a +1 per game you complete from that).

3 Likes
  • +1 - Resident Evil 2 Remake (XSX) - Classic example of my “play style” (read: ADHD-addled brain whims): started the game in 2020 and only now made it through the game. What was already one of my favorite RE games was lovingly recreated in a package that exceeds even the original IMO. Aside from the damn resilience of the undead bastards on Hardcore mode, I’d say it’s a damn near perfect game overall. Cannot recommend highly enough - a rare 10/10 in my book.

Total = 4.5

5 Likes

Crysis 2 +1

I booted this up and set it to Super Soldier difficulty for a challenge. The first thing I did was save to unlock the best camo and play the game stealthily, like everyone’s favourite pussy face - The Predator. It’s a very linear experience compared to Crysis 1; gone are those lush beaches, and instead, we fight in a very colorful New York for some urban warfare. It has a very similar loop to Halo, with arena fighting and then moving on to the next. The gameplay is fun enough, and I’m looking forward to booting up Crysis 3 to see where the story leads.

2 Likes