I’m not a fan of car games, and I’m not a fan of football games, and I’m not a fan of online multiplayer games, so this seemed like the easiest Bin ever.
So why can’t I stop PLAYING IT
Rocket League treats the laws of physics more like suggestions than rules, and it works really well. Sure, cars can double jump. Three-point turn on a wall? Sure. Holding boost while doing a backflip lets you fly? Of course!
I’ve only played with bots so far, and I definitely feel like it’d be a blast with real peeps, but beyond Team Fortress 2 I’ve never stepped into the murky world of online random matches. I’ll wanna play with friends I know before I do that.
Fin or Bin:
One thing I’ve already noticed is there’s a lack of variety. The arenas all seem to be essentially identical mechanically, and I don’t know how long the standard ‘soccar’ game mode can hold my attention without some variance in the way it works- obstacles, different objectives, anything. That was what kept me playing TF2 for over 3000 hours, and it will determine how long it takes me to be Finished with Rocket League.
Recommended To:
A lot of people probably got this free with their graphics card (me too!) and immediately decided it wasn’ their kind of thing (me too!). I would say, if you already own it by some method, definitely give it the hour of play. Otherwise, worth the jump if you have friends you can play with, and could possibly be a huge timesink online if you enjoy that.
It’s time once more for the annual backloggening, and the root cause of why this blog exists in the first place- Steam Summer Sale is upon us for 2018. And, since the BBacklog Challenge is all about unearthing hidden gems and playing great games that might otherwise go unplayed, I wanted to share some BBLC faves that I would highly recommend you pick up if you can.
I can’t praise this one highly enough, and months later I still catch myself singing the final boss song in my head (YES MA’AM). You’ll be smiling ear to ear all the way through, and there’s a decent amount of content for completonists. If you only buy one game in this year’s sale, make it Tadpole Treble.
A dollar for Shuuten is a total steal already, and you’ll get 6 other interesting games along with it. Shuuten is a neat little STG that will take a couple of hours to get through (longer if you’re less STG-inclined). The other games might be of interest, but Shuuten is the star of the show personally.
It’s the second rhythm game on this short list, but it couldn’t be further removed from Tadpole Treble’s cute charms. Klang is stylish, rockin’, badass, and HARD. But once you get the rhythms down everything just seems to work and you’ll feel like the coolest tuning-fork-swordsmonkey that ever lived.
Oh god, as a Harvest Moon survivor, I already knew this one was going to sink its claws into me and not let go. I was right. I already played for three hours before tearing myself away to write this.
I read a review
about this game long ago that basically boiled down to “it’s got
a girly name but it’s fine as long as you don’t let your friends
see you playing it”. I hope to be a little bit more helpful here
than that review was.
This has been one of
the hardest calls so far. The artstyle is pretty and unique (it kinda
looks like one of those early-2000s kids shows that was animated in
flash), the music is nice, I like the whimsy of the setting, and the
battle system is actually something I’ve not seen before, requiring
on-the-fly rearrangement of your party during battles to maximise
their abilities.
I gave it an hour
and a half, and the story hasn’t really grabbed hold of me yet. For
an RPG in particular, the story is what really matters, and I don’t
yet feel invested in it. But the kicker here is the controls. How on
earth do you get the controls wrong in an RPG??? Magical Starsign
somehow manages it.
The D-pad handles
directional movement, as you would expect. But the face buttons also
act as a right-handed D-pad… and the Action button is the L or R
trigger. Okay, fine, that takes some getting used to, but it could
work… if the L/R buttons weren’t also the Run buttons, and if the
player character didn’t slip by at a diagonal any time they ran
into an obstacle. It feels like I’m trying to put in the Konami
code every time I try to remember the right order to press and
release all of these buttons just to interact with the story object I
need. Baffling.
Fin or Bin:
Magical Starsign has
pretty much confirmed a plan I had been brewing, inasmuch as I want
to revisit all of the Binned games once I’ve got my backlog down to
zero. It’s not put me off enough that I can confidently say I want
to Bin it, but when I consider there’s 60 other games I could be
playing instead I also don’t really want to Finish it, at least
right now. I’d like to see if I can get into it better when there’s
less competition for my time- I might also be better in the mood for
an RPG later on, which I admit I’m not really feeling at the moment
regardless.
Aside from some discordantly lewd dialogue at the start, this kinetic VN is 110% fluff, with not an H or an ecchi in sight. Rather, it focuses on the emotional side of the budding relationship between the two main girls, with what is actually a pretty good depiction of a teenager’s first real crush. Every line is voiced (JP) and the artwork is very pretty, with a surprising amount of CGs during important moments. It all ends rather abruptly though and I actually had to go back and check I hadn’t accidentally skipped a chapter. There’s also a few moments in the story where the perspective changes without any real indication, which can be pretty jarring- especially later on, when it happens twice in the same scene.
Fin or Bin:
Well, I actually did finish it, so… Fin, for sure. It’s short, cute, and fun, fluffy as heck, and brought up some laughs.
In
this era of Steam sales and Humble Bundles, we’ve all got one- 100
games for the price of a fart, and even though you only really wanted
two of them, those other games are probably fun too, right? Trouble
is, another bundle comes along, and another sale comes along, and
then comes that 100-hour RPG you’ve been waiting eagerly for… and
suddenly your backlog of games is choking your library. You scroll
through on occasion, having completely forgotten what 90% of the
games even are, convinced that you’ll get to them one day, some
day… eventually.
There’s
no doubt that among these games, there’s a lot of fun to be had.
Some of them might be hidden gems just waiting for their chance to
become your Game Of The Year, or at least a fun diversion well worth
the asking price of 20 cents. On the other hand, you know some of
these games probably aren’t really your thing- but you don’t want
to judge them without trying them first… even though you know
you’re never going to try them, with so many more interesting games
to choose from.
The
BBacklog Challenge is aimed at getting these backlogs whittled down
and cleared out. Here’s how it works:
1.
List your backlog. The whole damn thing. Dust off your Humble Bundle
keys, open that Steam account you haven’t dared look at for three
years, gaze in bewilderment at all the second-hand console games
you’ve bought. Put them in a numbered list, ordered however you
wish.
2.
Either ask for a nomination from your peers, or just use a
dice-roller to pick a game from the list. (If you’ve been asked to
nominate a game for someone, why not pick something you’ve never
heard of? Give those unknown titles a chance in the spotlight!)
3.
Within 7 days of choosing your game, you must give it one solid hour
of play. After playing for an hour, it’s time to write a short
blurb about it. Here’s the most important part of the challenge:
Give
a quick description of the game, a few things that were cool and some
things that sucked. If you really hated the game, feel free to tear
it to shreds. At the end of your review, decide whether to Fin It or
Bin It.
‘Fin(ish)
It’ means you’ll add the game to your current rotation until
you’ve finished it. ‘Finishing’ a game is a hard thing to
define, and it differs from one person to another. For the purposes
of this challenge, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to complete
it 100%- putting the game on your Fin list simply means you’ll play
the game until you’re satisfied you’ve done everything you want
to do.
‘Bin
It’ means you remove the game from your backlog, and consider it
done with. Breathe a sigh of relief as the burden of that game is
lifted from your shoulders. You need never again feel like you didn’t
give the game it’s due- you played it, you weren’t impressed,
time to spend your gaming hours on something you do want to play.
Binning
a game doesn’t necessarily mean you think it’s bad! There’s
going to be a lot of games that are well-made experiences that would
probably be enjoyable to some people, but simply aren’t your kind
of game. That’s fine! Mention that in your write-up and leave a
link for other people who might think the game does sound
interesting.
Either
way, that’s one item off your backlog, and you get to roll again!
The
ideal end result is you’ll end up playing some games you might
otherwise never have made time for, along the way discovering
unexpected new favourites, and sharing those faves with other people
who end up enjoying them too. If you do it once a week for a year,
you’ll get 50 games off your backlog, and just in time for the
Steam Winter Sales to fill your list up again with games other people
have recommended!
