A bit late on this, but after starting September strong with 4 completions in 5 days, I wanted to get my single August completion on the board.

48. A game that has been a HLTB Game of the Month: Valiant Hearts: The Great War ✅Completed Aug 5th

As of August 31st:
24/50 Challenge, 1/9 alternative

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Completed 2 games in July thanks to itchmas

30. A game with a diverse cast: Yurivania 2: Josette's Quest ✅Completed July 8th. Lots of queer characters of different species.

16. A game from a genre you don't usually play Folder Dungeon✅ Completed July 2nd. Roguelike.

23/50 Challenge, 1/9 alternative

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I nominate Persona 4 Golden.

June Update

Thought I had finally get that month without a completed game, but despite playing an average of less than a half hour a day, ended up completing 2 games this month.

03. A really old game (released 20+ years ago): Virtua Fighter 2 ✅ Got to credits on June 26th. Game released December of 1995.

09-1. A remake or remaster of a game: 8-Bit Adv Steins;Gate ✅ Completed on June 27th. Technically a demake, but an official one.

21/50 Challenge, 1/9 alternative
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I nominate:
Texting the Awkward Ace Guy You've Had a Crush on Since High School (HLTB | itch)

Yurivania 1: Uhaul of the Night (HLTB | itch)

May Update
Yet another slow gaming month😔. 2 completions.

20-2. A game set in the far future: Telocation: Gemini ✅ Completed May 18th
"you control a crashlanded space cadet that befriends a robot and who work together to gather gems and escape the planet"
Sounds like the far future to me

44-2. A game that you have beaten before and are replaying: Hatoful Boyfriend ✅Completed May 29th
Only completed one route on my first playthrough, which really was such a small part of the VN. Completed the main story this time, though still not every route.

19/50 Challenge, 1/9 alternative

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The alias for Quintessential Quintuplets ∬: Summer Memories indicates the two games in the series are the same. The localization will have a double pack on eShop but Steam has them seperated:

The Quintessential Quintuplets - Memories of a Quintessential Summer
The Quintessential Quintuplets - Five Memories Spent With You


Also, for this 3DS game only released in Japan, Assassination Classroom, there are two games according to Wikipedia:
Assassination Classroom: Grand Siege on Koro-sensei (Ansatsu Kyōshitsu: Koro-sensei Dai Hōimō (Japanese: 暗殺教室 殺せんせー大包囲網!!)
and
Assassination Classroom: Assassin Training Plan

April

Another slow gaming month, but 4 games completed thanks to some 3DS action and a couple of itch games at the end of the month.

21. A game with a female protagonist: Children of Silentown ✅ Completed Apr 2nd

34. A bright and cheerful game: Kira Kira Pop Princess ✅Completed Apr 3rd


Veeery bright and cheerful!

14-3. A game whose title starts with a number: Nine Hole Ninja ✅Completed Apr 21st
Didn't even realize this fit the category, which I didn't think I'd be able to complete, when I started it. If you got the Palestine Aid itch bundle and want an easy completion, play this.

25-2. A game whose protagonist you would want to be friends with: Our Cinderella ✅Completed April 21st
A shut-in ace game developer who talks dirty with his friends online.

18/50 Completed
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I nominate Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

I only got my 3DS a week ago, but it does appear I have some Mario Kart 7 ghost data and uploaded it. Curious how something like that could be used once preserved.

Also, Universal Updater errored out attempting to download both the .cia and the .3ds, but I was able to sideload the homebrew with FBI.

Slow month, only completed 1 game in March.

11. A collection of games ✅ WarioWare Gold Completed March 27th

Got my first handheld between the Game Boy Pocket I had as a kid and the Switch, in the 3DS, of which I of course wanted to homebrew. Ended up having a lot more fun than I expected in WarioWare Gold given minigames are not completly my thing.

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For Fools Choice I nominate Virtual Boy Wario Land.

Think it would be good to experience this with the group now that there is an emulator on the 3DS that I’ve heard does the platform justice (though you could emulate it on a PC too).

For GotM I nominate Children of Silentown.
I believe this was in a bundle recently.

February

Slowest gaming month in a long time, just over an hour of gaming a day on average. Still managed 4 completions, though.

08. A game you've been wishing and waiting for. The Invincible✅Completed Feb 1st
Played the demo on Steam and immediately put it on my wish list, though did wait for a sale.

06. A quick completion (less than an hour). My Brother Ate My Pudding ✅Completed Feb 29th in just under an hour.

13. A game whose title could describe your life Cocoon ✅ Completed Feb 2nd
Because of how much I sleep

36. A game that heavily features either fire or ice. Arise: A Simple Story ✅ Completed Feb 20th
Level where you control the ice melting and a level or two with fire

Up to 13/50 challenges.

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Little early, but there are only 29 days this month, so I will nominate Persona 3 Reload.

It's on Game Pass, if ya got that.

Just a thought...

Should "Amazon Prime" be listed under the Subscription group for game storefronts?

There's already the "Amazon Game App" which is the delivery method, but the only games I have on there are games that I received from my Amazon Prime subscription, so I wonder if it would be more appropriate to have the subscription available, to keep it in line with other storefronts (eg the difference between Playstation Store and PS+).

Amazon Prime is what you need to get the games, however, I think as the games are yours to keep once you claim them, it makes sense to call it Amazon Games. As opposed to PS Plus which is required to be active to play the game.

This does get a bit hairy as the Xbox Games w/ Gold games that were for the original Xbox or 360 are yours to keep, but the One and Series require an active Xbox Console Core or Utimate subscription.

Glad to see some improvements to the csv export. I would like to renew my request for the collection export to include ranking order.

And I agree with ThyReen. I just added one of the puzzles included with Apple News+, which I wouldn't classify as Apple Arcade or App Store but does not have enough games to constitute really suggesting to the site. I would say the same for some of the other video streaming services that are adding games like Crunchyroll (which has around 7 games I think) and it would be great to add some manual storefronts and perhaps platforms. Data gathered by what people add could potentially be used to decide what new storefronts and platforms get added for everyone.

I was waiting for the EA App change, personally. Might have to make some changes to my spreadsheet a bit for the change but I am all for it.

January

Felt like a slow month but ended up with 9 completions, all of which found home in a category.

01. A new game (released within the past year):✅ Apple News+ Crossword Mini
Endless but Completed (a couple of puzzles) on Jan 25th.
Released with iOS 17 on September 18, 2023.
Got maybe my 5th free trial to Apple News+ and decided to try this simple crossword on my Mac.

10. A game with 6+ endings: First Kiss at a Spooky Soiree ✅ Completed Jan 13th

22. A game without any humans: Princess Puffin and the Spider Invasion ✅ Completed Jan 13th
Moths vs spiders. Didn't see any humans.

23. A game where you play as a robot or an alien: TetrEscape ✅Completed Jan 15th.
I don't think it's specifically mentioned that you play as a robot, but you're definitely a robot pushing around Tetris pieces.

33-2. A spin-off game: Persona 5 Tactica ✅ Completed Jan 11th

43. A game that one of your favorite artists worked on: Starry Flowers ✅ Completed Jan 24th
Created by NomnomnNami who has created a bunch of queer VNs and adventure games that I really love. 2 other games completed this month were by her.

44-1. A game you previously retired or put on hold: SeaBed✅ Completed Jan 4th.
Placed on hold a long time ago when I realized I lost track of the story. Paid a lot more attention this time but still was a bit confused

47. A game that had its HLTB times on a purple/red/gray background at the time you started playing it. Chemically Bonded✅ Completed Jan 16th
Some people might have a hard time with this category, but I bet half of my backlog fits this, with all the itch and other obscure games.

50. A game chosen by the HLTB randomizer: Thirsty Suitors✅ Completed Jan 30th
Got lucky with this one, the 3rd time I hit the randomizer, with the first 2 being games I would not want/be able to complete, a game I was already playing popped up.

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January 2024 recap - also December & November 2023
It's been a while since my last post. I had a 2023 Year End started but I didn't feel like finishing it at the time.
So, I'd like to just throw out some stats of my 2023 in gaming.

Very-belated 2023 recap
832 hours of gaming, just 7 fewer hours than 2022.

2023 by platform. 44% on PC which is way down from 2022 and already signs it will be going down way more in 2024.

2023 by Storefront. 39% on Xbox Game Pass and only 5% on itch.io, which did drop off from a big 2022 at 9%.

2023:
+78 Backlog
+111 Completions
+85 Retired
-2 in my Playing Tab
428 added to playthroughs.

Duplicating the Sun

Much of my last several months has been devoted more to getting my self-hosted video streaming up, running and tested the heck out of. But I did make some improvements to my self-hosted gaming experience:

I tried increasing my simultaneous streams in Sunshine settings, so I could, for example, control from my laptop with a keyboard while viewing on my TV or using my iPhone with the Backbone as a controller when I forget to bring my Xbox controller downstairs.

It works a lot better than when I first tried, which shows how much Sunshine has improved since it got life from having to adapt from a post GeForce Experience GameStream world.

I even set up Sunshine on my cheap Celeron laptop, as I didn’t have access to my PC for a bit and used it as a middleman to get my Xbox console streaming on Apple TV.

My PC is still having issues and after a lot of troubleshooting I am currently somewhat underclocking it to prevent it from crashing, but will eventually have to get it looked at, which means time away from the only PC I have that can actually game on its own.

Let’s Get Physical

Which would mean no way to emulate my Switch games on all the screens. I even decided to buy my first physical game in a while, Apollo Justice Trilogy, thinking it would be both good to have another VN on a handheld and get a game and immediately extract it for later emulation.


Apollo Justice for Nintendo Switch. New in packaging on my desk. My first physical game in years.

While cataloging my new physical game, It got me thinking of the other physical games I own and how I could play the way I play other games via Moonlight. So I went and got the 3 Guitar Hero games made for PC, made it so they could run without a disc and then use VirtualHere so my Guitar Hero controller would work from the living room with my MacBook as a middleman.

I also installed GTA 3, which I have in a non-definitive trilogy. It works over Moonlight, but the controls are wankey. For example, there is very little camera movements and the button to find customers in a taxi isn’t bound by default. So, there is more to look into there.

The Switch to Android(?)

I did some a lot of Android gaming on my Switch, with 3 of my 9 completions for the month being marked as Android – 2 VNs and a puzzle game.

I am currently playing Bury Me, My Love and hoping for a better ending than my first playthrough. It is a heartbreaking game where a couple is having a chat on their phones as one of them goes to cross the Mediterranean in search of asylum while you, the husband, waits behind. The game can be played where you receive notifications and must wait, not fully real time, but does add a bit of drama while you don’t know if she is safe. Since this game is being played on my Switch locally, I don’t always have access to it and have been playing a couple of minutes a day.


The very cute Starry Flowers, a free cute kinetic VN from Google Play on my Switch from NomnomNami.

And of course, playing Xbox games on my various device, including completing Thirsty Suitors and making it most of the way so far through The Invincible.


Thirsty Suiters on Xbox. Aruni: “Yes, my every major life decision is guided solely by its impact on you.”
Felt like this the whole game, with the protagonist being very much the focal point.

January summary
-1 Backlog
+9 Completions
+1 Retired
+2 in Playing Tab
+13 Games added to playthroughs.
50 hours played.

Looking to next month
Currently Playing:
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
The Invincible
Spare Parts: Episode 3
Bury Me, My Love
Cocoon

Looking forward to Persona 3 Reload next month.

That time again?

I nominate Arise: A Simple Story.

I completed so many games last January cause i wanted to get started on the 2023 list.
I ended up with 111 Completions in 2023. 48/50 challenges, 5/5 bonus, 4/7 alternatives, 1 replay within year, 53 others.
Couldn't get myself to get through 2 final categories, but new challenge breathes new life.

Here is my 2024 collection.

Updates:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August

I nominate Cocoon.

It's on Game Pass, if ya got that.

Switch: 17 hours according to Nintendo, but due to me hacking my Switch earlier this year and starting to emulate my purchased games, I ended up playing 49 hours

PSN: 95 hours according to Sony, 83 hours according to my spreadsheet. A lot of time spent testing out Chiaki and leaving games on, I guess.

Steam: Did not see time in the Year In Review, but I have 129 hours noted.

Xbox: Got my Xbox Series S in March, but started off the year in Xbox strong finishing P5R in January. 699 hours according to Microsoft, but only 335 hours actually spent between Xbox Game Pass, Games w/ Gold (RIP), Microsoft Store and EA Play. So that is a huge difference. A lot of time spent AFK.

So add that up and I get 596 hours of the 818 hours spent gaming this year spent on these 4 ecosystems.
Other notable:
itch.io 42 hours
Amazon/Prime claims: 9 hours
App Store & Apple Arcade: 11 hours
Epic Games: 38 hours
GOG: 4 hours
Netflix: 6 hours
EA Desktop purchases: 17 hours
Direct Download (mostly emulated): 70 hours

I nominate:

Yurivania 1: Uhaul of the Night: HLTB, itch

Yoshi Goes to Tesco: HLTB, itch

MapFriend: HLTB, itch

I nominate Thirsty Suiters.

It's on Game Pass, if you got that.