Boogieman11762,209 (46,845)

Post #12 – Scratching the Itch

Greeting readers,

This week has brought some stability back into my journey through the backlog, and I think I’ve hit a few milestones along the way.

At this point, I’ve gone through about 15 games since the beginning of the backlog journey and the ratio of games purchased vs. games ‘done with’ is steadily going in the right direction. Thank goodness I’m broke right now, otherwise the recent Sony “State of Play” sale would drastically throw that ratio wildly in the other direction. Also, I think I’m unofficially 5 months into the journey (started with Assassins Creed: Black Flag in January 2019). 15 games in 5 months… seems like a solid ratio… until I realized that I still have 120+ games to go. What a time to be a gamer.

Speaking of time, something most gamers have realized over the past few years that there isn’t enough time of, I’m feeling the Destiny 2 itch starting to what to be scratched again. Seeing the latest Twitch stream from Bungie about their Year 3 content named ‘Shadowkeep’ has reinvigorated my urge to play Destiny 2 again and kick the mud of my Hunter (and clan’s) boots. Of course, I've been down this road before, and decided to start a small, grassroots community with my clan. In due time, my goal is to convert my clan from the communication system called “Band” to a modern Discord server. From there, I’m looking to invite Destiny 2 players from all platforms (Stadia, PS4, Xbox, and PC) to hang out in our Discord server and play amongst the clan members. This is a nice thought and would balance nicely for the times that I need to take a break from the solo journey through the backlog** and be more social with clanmates.

** Note to self - I’ve got to come up with a unique and catchy term instead of using ‘journey through the backlog’ – I’ve used in 3 times in the past few paragraphs and it’s getting old already in 12 blog posts to type it over and over. Hey readers: got any pithy ideas? Reply in the comments or shoot me a message over Twitter or Twitch.

With that, back to the [INSERT CATCHY REPLACEMENT FOR ‘JOURNEY THROUGH THE BACKLOG’ HERE]

Mousecraft – Released 08 July 2014
Mousecraft is a neat little puzzle game that initially grabbed my attention with it’s simple puzzles and minimal story, however after a little while, manipulating the Tetris-like pieces in order to get the mice from Point A to Point B while trying to get the extra ‘pieces’ became a tad boring. It’s a game that looks, acts, and feels like a decent indie game from 2014, but sadly, it’s just not for me.

Hohokum - Released 22 July 2014
There’s not a whole lot of bad things I can say about this game, the only thing I had issues with when starting this game was…. What in the hell am I doing? After looking at a few videos and figuring it out on my own, I ran into the same issue that I did with Mousecraft - an older game with a good hook and simple mechanics, but just doesn’t hold my interest. Again, this isn’t a knock on Hohokum or Mousecraft, it’s just not for me right now and with a myriad of games ahead, it’s going to fall by the wayside.

Oddworld: New and Tasty - Released 22 July 2014
Oddworld games are relatively new to me; I’m sure this is a blasphemous statement for long-term PlayStation gamers, but it’s true. After unlocking a few trophies and working through the first few levels, I found the game intriguing, but lackluster for me. Again, and maybe this is because it’s an older game and the last 2 games prior were puzzle-based games, but this just didn’t strike me as entertaining. Sorry Abe.



This were pretty amusing when they happened.

The Last of Us Remastered - Released 29 July 2014
Ahhh, this feels right. I played TLoU on the PS3 and I RARELY replay games, but there’s something about TLoU that I can’t help but replay. The details for the storyline are hazy enough for me to forget about some major plot points and some probable jump scares, but it’s too good to not play again. Naughty Dog remastered the game for the PS4, so the 60fps on a modern TV looks simply stunning and it feels like it’s adding some visual elements that really appeal to me.

I just started the game a few nights ago, so it’ll be a fun process to restart this story, especially with TLoU2 coming in a year or two.

"Are you Still There?" - GlaDOS
I’ve been enjoying writing these blogs, but I’m a little sad that the engagement for the site isn’t as high as I thought it’d be. Looking over the site, it seems like I’ve missed the ‘hayday’ of this site and even jumped into the Discord for the TrueGaming network in an attempt to keep an interest, but it’s waning. I’m really happy to document my progress here, but being in the Top 50 of the blogs for the site with only 4 followers tells me that this site is inactive as best. I’ve been playing with the idea of launching my own site and blogging there, but that’s a price I’m not interested in paying. Cross-posting on Reddit (looking at you /r/playstation) isn’t an option - apparently posts like these aren’t considered ‘original content’. So please, engage with me - tell me that I should give MouseCraft another shot. Tell me that Oddworld gets better if I keep going with it. Convince me that King Oddball isn’t the strangest damned game on the PSN.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for now. I’m thinking about writing a nice, long (as if these aren’t long enough) post on E3 releases and announcements, but struggling to find the time to actually type it out. If I do decide to do it, expect a decent gap in blog entries while I work, volunteer, game, sleep, parent, and every other thing that comes before the blog. :-
Until next time!