The Mind Of OverlordTomala
Gaming

Climbing Mt. Backlog: 2023

2023 was by far the most productive year of gaming I’ve ever had. During the work weeks I would always find time to at least play anywhere between an half an hour to a full one at the end of each evening, just to unwind a little before bed and MAYBE entice my imagination a bit for dreamland. Here is a list of games that I FINALLY got around to finishing, and possibly some ideas for any readers that happen to pass by.

Commander Keen: Episode 1

I’ve been wanting to play this handheld style for almost as long as I’ve been alive, and I only had to wait my whole life to finally achieve it. What’s really interesting is that it has Steam Cloud Support, meaning you can play this in between your other gaming PC’s. I made a custom config for saving, and using DOS commands with the touchpads. I’ve put this one off for far too long, but at least after all this time I can say that I finally finished it. I recommend it for those who have an interest in old school DOS games.

Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light

Some adventures are best with friends – Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light is amazing both for couch co-op or with a friend elsewhere in the world. Apart from a few bugs it was fun to play! To celebrate finishing it we even made a video about it:

Shadow Warrior 2

This was another game I put off playing for a long time, but I savored every moment of combat and the large selection of weapons and elemental combinations you could put together. They added Photo Mode to showcase how beautiful the game is, something they would take away in Shadow Warrior 3… Overall I enjoyed it just as much as I did the previous installment. It had all of the elements of the Shadow Warrior reboot, with a little bit of Borderlands sprinkled into the mix. If you’re looking for an FPS with a mix of Hack n Slash you need not look any further.

 

Sayonara Wild Hearts

A birthday gift from a good friend! It was short, but sweet. It tells the story of a girl who fell out of love and goes on a musical journey to find it again after fighting all of her demons that prevented her from wanting to love. I had fun playing this one in between Desktop and Steam Deck. I still go back to it from time to time, the music in it is perfect to vibe to. It’s basically an interactive album.

 

Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands

Bought in 2023, and finished in 2023 in a matter of months. This was one that scratched an itch after finishing Borderlands 2, and gave us the incentive to puck up Borderlands 3 again after we completed it. The ending was anticlimactic, but the journey along the way was as fun as it was photogenic.

Okami HD

 

Another game that took me forever to finish, mostly because it originally released on a platform I didn’t have. When Okami was announced for PC I was there on day one for it! But due to going between too many game worlds at the same time I never got around to finishing it until the Steam Deck. Thanks to Steam Cloud Saving I was able to play this delightful title between Desktop, TV and on the go. At the same time though, I’m glad I didn’t rush it. It’s an extremely large game, especially for the era it released in, but once I finished it I felt that melancholy sensation knowing that the adventure was finally over after all this time. One of these days I’ll have to return to it to get straggling achievements.

Cloudpunk

A gift from another good friend! This one I finished pretty quickly. It’s a great game to play when you just wanna chill, fly around and absorb an interesting story. It was also another fun game to play between the desk, couch and Steam Deck.

 

Abyss Odyssey

Another one I had fun with between Deck and Desk. When I first played this in the beginning I found the controls to be clunky, but after spending some quality time with it on Steam Deck, and playing other Metroidvanias I finally up’d my game enough to finish this one! At least on the Katriana playthrough. This one was a fun grind to play during my lunch breaks.

 

Shantae: Half Genie Hero

I mostly played this one on Steam Deck, and I even got the good ending! Shantae has been one of the Metroidvanias to really help get me into the series. I love the art, the sense of humor and overall creativity this one brings to the table! I even started Shantae and the Seven Sirens not long after finishing this one, maybe I’ll finish that one in 2024! 😛

It was a wonderful year for finishing games ranging from old to new, indie to AAA, and all from the comfort of wherever I happened to be at the time. What games will I finish next year? I can already predict a few…

Gaming

Lace Your Heart With Mine

We decided to try out Baldur’s Gate 3 in co-op tonight! We couldn’t use the single player characters like we planned, so we decided to create some different lore characters for our first multiplayer session. Yutram went with a Drow Monk, and I’m a Half High Elf Rogue. I’m still getting used to the controls, but I’m liking that I can save pretty much anytime I want INCLUDING in multiplayer. Makes it soooooo easy to rollback if I fuck up on something, or if a dice roll pisses me off. I’m fairly certain we’ll be playing again soon. 🙂 Even though I’m a total n00b I’m enjoying the story and exploration.

Gaming

Down By The River

Decided to dip my toes into Baldurs Gate 3! Got it as a holiday gift to myself, among a few other titles. My first character is a purple lightning dragonborn. I’m not very far into the game, just escaped hell. This isn’t usually my kind of game to play, but so far it’s been pretty easy to grasp. I’m looking forward to doing a bit of co-op some time! Plus I have some ideas for a few other characters that could be fun.

All in an Overlord's day / Gaming

Awwwww Yeaaaaa

Spyro seemed like a zen way of ending the evening after having a relatively nice day, even at work. Switching from morning chai to a light grapefruit jasmine so that my body may power down properly, as I’m also listening to the pitter patter of rain both digitally and in reality. Finally setting the mood to lay my weary head upon the pale pillows majesty after such vivid adventures after a quiet noir day.

All in an Overlord's day / Gaming

Steam End Of Year Review: 2023

It’s that time of the year again, where The GabeN sits us down and tells us about the multitude of ways we collectively wasted our time throughout 2023. Apparently I’ve been really busy, especially on Achievements. So, how did I manage to have fun this year? Let’s find out!

I have a hard time wrapping my head around this one. How can you be on Steam and only play 4 games? I’m guessing these must be people that only play TF2/Counterstrike and a couple of others. Me though? Apparently I’m full of variety. I played a total of 118 different games over the span of 119 days, meaning I’m not afraid to try something new. Among those 118 games I managed to finish 9 of them, a story for another end of the year thread! 😛 I was two achievements short of getting 400. I’ve set a pretty high bar for myself on Achievements, not sure if I’ll be able to hurdle over it in 2024. 😛

Surprisingly I played a lot of newer titles this year. They were indies for the most part, some I fell in love with during NextFest! Such as; Whisker Squadron Survivor, and Gal Guardians just to name a couple.

For me this was the year of Metroidvanias and Roguelikes. I finished one of the Shantae games, and I progressed further in a multitude of others like Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and Dust: an Elysian Tail. While I’ve also been playing Whisker Squadron Survivor and Hades. There was also some looting to be had in different variations of the Borderland’s and a tiny bit of electronic warfare of the Cyber and Mech varieties. With my collection of entertainment I’m never allowed to be bored. 😛

One quarter of my overall fun time was done on my Steam Deck with 0% regrets. Every long lunch break it was there for me whenever I needed to kill a bit of time, sometimes literally. Even managed to complete a few games on it that I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish elsewhere, thanks to cloud saving and being able to pick up where I left off after sleep mode. Some of the games I finished on Deck were the first Commander Keen Episode, Shantae: Half Genie Hero and Okami as some examples. After over a year of having the Steam Deck I can honestly say I’m quite happy with my purchase.

In conclusion: This was an amazing year to finish games both of past and present, and discovering new adventures. May the distractions I have in 2024 be just as incredible as previous years.

Gaming / Open Threads

Christmas Eve Open Thread

On this Christmas Eve I had awoke from a long winters nap, something that hasn’t happened in I don’t know how long. I celebrated by sitting down with some tea and nog, played a fun game while talking to another friend that was doing the same thing but with beer instead. Time to celebrate surviving a holiday season of assholes, now I can rest for the next one.

Gaming

I Have Assumed Control

Another busy day passes, and a quiet evening sucks me into Control once more for more other worldly adventures and achievements/trophies to find. I learned to levitate, survived two intense boss fights, and continued to lose myself in the epic awesomeness that is photo mode.

We all float down here…

More pics can be found over at Mastodon!

Gaming

Finding That Rainbow

Settled down tonight with a bit of Trine. I even got an achievement for using each character’s ability in one level, and I triggered it by turning into the Knight and falling onto a skeleton! I had a busy day of work, although I did stop at a new tea shop after I got off work today. They make really amazing milk tea! I went with a friendo for some authentic boba. Now I’m enjoying some peppermint tea before bed, tasty and helpful with inflammation.