BACKLOG is a “whenever the fuck I feel like it” blog feature focusing on how I’m progressing through video games, old and new, that are stuck in my backlog. Here I’ll generally update my progress in any and all games I’ve touched in the past 2-4 weeks. This includes updates on reviews I’m writing, games I’m looking forward to, thoughts I’ve had, and things I’ve purchased. 

To kick off April and give myself even more choices I didn’t need while massaging my ‘fear of missing out’ I’ve bought both Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom and Far Cry 5 for PS4. I watched some videos and several reviews for both and decided they are both the type of game I’m likely to enjoy and complete based off of the amount of time I spent playing Far Cry 3/Blood Dragon and Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. I started the introduction to Far Cry 5 and turned the game off because I decided I would rather dig into it when I was ready to dedicate time to a new open world game and I’m still fully invested in finishing Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I played the first two hours of Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom and I decided that even though I have an enthusiastic reaction to every Level 5 game that I pick up, this one can get in line behind Persona 5 in my JRPG slot. The one takeaway that I have from Ni No Kuni II is that it’s story might be clever and adorable but it lacks the sorrowful, defeated soul that defined the first game.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 

Nobody could accuse me of not living it up in the world of Kingdom Come: Deliverance over the past 15 hours. I murdered the entire guard of a small town and went to jail for a total of 9 complete game days. I dated a woman who saved me from getting killed by my own stupidity then fucked her in a barn on the third date. I defeated a large camp full of literally 30 heavily armored guards, single handedly. To top it all off I got drunk in the game to see what would happen and came dangerously close to becoming addicted to alcohol through the games strange ‘realistic’ personal maintenance systems. It is a fun game but it too often side-tracks you with trivial shit when the loop of murder and loot is ultimately the best part of the game. I want nothing more than to just focus on the in depth combat, combo systems, and I’ve already exhausted a lot of combat options. I more or less could take down the entire city of Rattay, and I did then rolled back my save file.

A few things have started to signal the progression of Kingdom Come’s conclusion but I’m not really sure where the narrative is going and to be honest I don’t really know how far along I am into the main story line of Kingdom Come: Deliverance but I have lost the plot in terms of having a marker of where to go with it. I was more or less completing a section of main quest and made some hasty decisions that left the quest-givers without enough information. Then to top it all off, when I dueled a guy who meant to beat me up I stabbed him and he ran away. I didn’t realize I wasn’t supposed to sword fight him and I haven’t been able to find him to complete a certain part of the questline. I actually streamed what happened on YouTube:

So, I’m not entirely sure what to do at this point. I haven’t broken the quest according to forums I’ve scanned and asked in but there is no clear answer to progression since I’ve satiated the mining contractor in Rattay and mucked up the quest given by Sir Radzig. Because I’ve been playing this game and little else for the last month I’m starting to reach the point where I’m either ready to drop it for it’s sluggish story progression or try to ram through it’s nonsense systems to try and figure out how to finish the damn thing. I will have a full review soon that will detail some of the bugs and dumber fuck ups I made throughout the experience. It will boil down to having to decide if I’d play it again or if there would be enough variation to be worth the clunky ‘realism’.

> Kingdom Come: Deliverance ~50% Complete

The Mummy Demastered

I’ve only made a few hours progress total on The Mummy Demastered where I’ve reached a new area and beaten a new boss. I got the running jump ability and just received the extended jump height ability. Through backtracking I also discovered the Flamethrower weapon, which is incredibly powerful. I’m loving the progression of the game but the enemies I encounter haven’t gotten more interesting, though the boss fights are incredible. I thought I had captured a screenshot of the second boss but unfortunately don’t think it captured properly. Not a ton of progress but I have been picking it up at least 1-2 times a week for an hour at a time. It isn’t a long game but I’ve heard parts get difficult, should be finished soon enough.

> The Mummy Demastered ~5-6 hours

Rime

Rime was free on Playstation Plus’ for February, I think. I started playing it after I watched a video about it’s PS4 Pro graphical enhancements. The puzzles are easy enough and it is a calm down and chill out kind of game. The main character’s movements are really stupid looking. I’ll probably finish it just for the sake of it but not if the puzzles get any more obtuse than they have been so far. The look of the game is close to The Witness and despite how it showed when it was first announced it isn’t a Zelda clone or even a Ico/Shadow of the Colossus type game, it is a third person puzzle-lite game closer to Abzû as an experience.

> Rime ~2 hours

I’ve been trying to stream more play sessions and make it a regular thing but I’ve hit a few hitches so far just in terms of the games I’ve been picking. I wanted to stream online matches of WipeOut: Omega Collection but any video I uploaded was copyright claimed (I’m not even able to monetize, anyhow) by the artist from each song that played and I’m not willing to play WipeOut without the music. Then I figured hey I’ll play one of my personal favorite multi-player games of all time: Chivalry: Medieval Warfare on the PS4 because I bought it over a year ago and haven’t put time into it. You can watch me play through the tutorials to prepare for an online match on YouTube:

But as you’ll see towards the end the servers are completely dead on PS4. After three days of checking in the evenings I realized there was literally nobody playing the damn game, on Earth (at least on PS4). I bought the game back in 2015 after having it on PC for even longer. I didn’t realize there were other iterations of the series and I will be trying Mirage: Arcane Warfare soon. Between WipeOut, Chivalry, and Paragon I don’t have a lot of multi-player PS4 that I’m interested in. If anyone has suggestions I’d gladly jump on it. I’ve considered streaming Dark Souls III New Game +7 and Nioh NewGame+ but I have spent enough time with each.

For now I’ll be mainlining Kingdom Come: Deliverance and The Mummy Demastered so I can get those out of my hair. From there I’m almost 100% decided that I’m going to give Dishonored 2 and Persona 5 my full attention in alternating bursts. With possible substitutions of streaming Monster Hunter World and starting Far Cry 5. I have purchased Dark Messiah of Might & Magic on Steam as well as X-Com: Enemy Unknown but so far I haven’t fired them up. I’ve been pressuring myself to do a lot more music reviews lately and since it hasn’t resulted in more readers, Patrons, or like even on a base level online friends/folks to chat with I’ll be dialing up my multi-player/online community gaming stuff a bit. Likely Monster Hunter World even if it is kinda old news by now.

BACKLOG: Unfinished titles, in order of importance. % progress noted.

1. Kingdom Come: Deliverance (PS4) ~30 hours
2. The Mummy: Demastered (PS4) ~5 hours
3. Dishonored 2 (PS4) 0%
4. Persona 5 (PS4) 10%
5. Monster Hunter World (PS4) ~1% (Restarted)
6. Far Cry 5 (PS4) 0%
7. Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir (PS4) 0%
8. Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom (PS4) 0%
9. South Park: Fractured But Whole (PS4) 50% [No progress]
10. The Surge: A Walk in the Park DLC (PS4) 0%
11. Risen 3: Titan Lords Enhanced Edition (PS4) [Recent purchase]
12. Tales of Zestiria (PS4) ~1% (in first town across bridge)
13. Arcania (PS4) 0%
14. Thief (PS4) 5%
15. Battle Chasers: Nightwar (PS4) 0%
16. The Technomancer (PS4) ~5% finished introduction
17. Mass Effect: Andromeda (PS4) 0%
18. Batman: Arkham Knight (PS4) 0%
19. Batman: Arkham City (PS4) 3%
20. Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition (PS4) 0% tutorial
21. Divinity: Original Sin (PC) 0% (restarting)
22. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (PS4) 60%
23. Hitman: Absolution (PC) 0%
24. Pillars of Eternity (PS4) 1% Tutorial
25. FEZ (PC) 20%
26. Metro 2033 (PS4) 0%
27. Metro: Last Light (PS4) 0%
28. Deus Ex: Invisible War (PC) 0% (restarting)
29. The Witcher: Enhanced Edition (PC) 0% (third restart…)
30. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (PC) 0% post-tutorial
31. Dragon Age: Inquisition (PS4) 0% tutorial
32. Dust: An Elysian Tale (PS4) 0%
33. Bioshock 2 (PC) 0%
34. Guacamelee! (PS3/PS4) 0% (restarting on PS4)