The Backlog Check-in Vol. 377: 3/22/25: AI Limit/Atomfall/The First Berserker: Khazan Edition

[Phaseknox]

Played: Nothing

Finished: Nothing

Playing: ?

Added: Alice Escaped!, Arc of Alchemist, Azura’s Crystals, Dragon Marked For Death, Grace of Letoile, Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten, Monster Hunter Stories, Neva, Reverie Knights Tactics, Senses: Midnight, Torn Away, Violett, Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World, Yohane the Parhelion - Blaze in the Deepblue

Games releasing this week
AI Limit
Ambidextro
Arcade Manager
Asurajang
As We Descend
Atomfall
Blue Wednesday
Breakout Beyond
Bubble Ghost Remake
Care Bears: Unlock the Magic
Cinemaster Cinema Simulator
Cookie Cutter
Dark Deity II
The Darkest Files
The Deadly Path
Dollhouse: Behind the Broken Mirror
Drive Beyond Horizons
Drone Perspective
Edge Islands
Emissary Zero
Empires of the Undergrowth - Exploding Ants
ENA: Dream BBQ
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
The First Berserker: Khazan
Folklands
Galactic Getaway
Gal Guardians: Servants of the Dark
The General Saga
Grit & Valor: 1949
Hitman World of Assassination
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
Inayah: Life After Gods
InZOI
Karma: The Dark World
Kemono Heroes
Legend of Heroes: Three Kingdoms
Level Devil
Lizards Must Die 2
Mash VP! Re:Vision
Mike Goes on Hike
Mini Royale
Miryam: The Polluted Land
Mother Machine
Nomad Idle
Nordhold
Rain World: The Watcher
Redemption of Liuyin
River Towns
Rosewater
Save
Schedule I
Shadow of the Orient
Sins of a Solar Empire II - Paths to Power
Sonokuni
Spilled!
Sports: Renovations
Squirreled Away
Tower of Kalemonvo
Tayutama: Kiss on my Deity
Tuggowar
Twilight Monk
Underdogs
Which Way Up: Galaxy Games
Your House

[canedaddy]

Played recently: GTA San Andreas

Finished: nothing

Added to backlog: nothing

Current backlog: 45


I'm in the Las Venturas area in GTA SA now... working with Woozie at the casino and whatnot. Good stuff.

The big question is whether I'll go for the platinum. It's well short of the accomplishment that 100%wned was back in the day, but it does carry the weight of officialdom with a trophy. It's very doable, but there's some tedium (killing 4,000 people, getting arrested 50 times ). We will see how I feel when I get to the end of the storyline.

[isthatallyougot]

I'm nearly finished with all the McPixel 3 segments. I've not uncovered all the "gags", but definitely most of them. It's been a fun time, and I've played nearly 6 hours - more than I was expecting going in.

I'm also about 3/4 of the way through Wario Land 4, and that has been a really fun puzzle platformer. I'm glad I decided to finally fire that one up.

And still trying to figure out who my "core" is in OOTP baseball. The scout I was given prior to the inaugural draft was trash and that has been reflected in my team's lack of talent. But GM-ing/managing a baseball franchise is a marathon and not a sprint, and I'll get it right sooner or later. Unfortunately my owner is about as tight of a tight-ass as you could imagine, so I'm being forced to shave payroll and sacrifice some good players for a very early rebuild as I look to the longer-term future and prospect development. This season is about fixing the mess that my generally poor drafting put me in due to the awful scout. And my best player has been shelved due to injury for most of the season, ugh. But I do have some pieces and am starting to see a sort of faint shape of a how this future "complete" team may look. But I also upped the default "talent change randomness" setting a bit when I created the league because I like a flavor of some unpredictability. So I'll be experiencing more unexpected season slumps and flashes than I might have otherwise, but that's part of what makes baseball/sport fun and/or exasperating. Unfortunately in terms of my staff / set of coaches, I've got an awkward mix of personalities that, coupled with the losing, has a locker room that is feuding and discontented. It's going to take some patience and calculated moves across the board, from roster (all 4 levels) and coaching hires and/or reassignments to get this thing sorted.

[jfissel]

Finished: Pirate Yakuza (platinum #100!)

Now Playing: Ace Attorney Trilogy, PowerWash Simulator Wallace & Gromit DLC

Added to Backlog: Nothing

Current Backlog: 42 games

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is in the books! And it is platinum number 100 for me! Took me a little over 15 years to get there - though a lot of the early PSN games didn't have platinum trophies and some of them should've had them.

Overall - fun side game in the series, but probably towards the bottom of the list. It's tough to get high on the list now. The sailing was fun for a bit, but they just want you to do it too much and there really isn't that much variety to it.

[argyle]

Finished: Pirate Yakuza (platinum #100!)

Games added: Xenoblade Chronicles X

Last week: Finished nothing, played Enter the Gungeon and a little Xenoblade

This week: ......

.....so here's the deal. I really love what I played of Xeno so far. But. A modder got into the game and found a currently unimplemented 60fps mode. 3D games running at 30fps give me a headache. Sounds like I'm being a graphics ho, I know, but it's the truth. The obvious explanation for that "hidden" 60fps mode is that it will be implemented when playing on the Switch 2. Which will be full unveiled next week, and is expected to release in June. So I can wait another 2-2.5 months to get an optimal experience with that game.

But that kinda throws me for a loop as far as what to play next. It's not that I don't have options, mind you - too many would be more of the problem. The two front-runners right now are Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom or Granblue Fantasy RE:Link. I'll make up my mind at some point.

In the meantime, I'm really enjoying Gungeon as a pick-up-and-play game. I had bounced off of it a couple years back, but I guess I was more in the mood for it this time (it was on Gamepass once before, and was re-added a week or 2 ago). It's a twin stick shooter roguelite, and it's hitting the right spots for me. Whatever else I pick, I'll still be playing that some at least until I manage to finish a run.

[canedaddy]

Sounds like a smart decision, argyle. I know many have crossed over into 30 vs 60 framerate awareness, but I have not gotten there yet. I'm sure it'll happen if/when I get a PS5.

Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii is in the books! And it is platinum number 100 for me! Took me a little over 15 years to get there - though a lot of the early PSN games didn't have platinum trophies and some of them should've had them.

THE. MACHINE. !



Meanwhile I'm sitting here at 13, with some of them super easy.

Overall - fun side game in the series, but probably towards the bottom of the list. It's tough to get high on the list now. The sailing was fun for a bit, but they just want you to do it too much and there really isn't that much variety to it.

Curious what is at the top of your list? Mine are probably 0, 3 and Like a Dragon.

[isthatallyougot]

In the meantime, I'm really enjoying Gungeon as a pick-up-and-play game. I had bounced off of it a couple years back, but I guess I was more in the mood for it this time (it was on Gamepass once before, and was re-added a week or 2 ago). It's a twin stick shooter roguelite, and it's hitting the right spots for me. Whatever else I pick, I'll still be playing that some at least until I manage to finish a run.

I just picked that up on the last spring steam sale because it was so cheap. I've always felt like it was a game I'd fall in love with.

[argyle]

In the meantime, I'm really enjoying Gungeon as a pick-up-and-play game. I had bounced off of it a couple years back, but I guess I was more in the mood for it this time (it was on Gamepass once before, and was re-added a week or 2 ago). It's a twin stick shooter roguelite, and it's hitting the right spots for me. Whatever else I pick, I'll still be playing that some at least until I manage to finish a run.

I just picked that up on the last spring steam sale because it was so cheap. I've always felt like it was a game I'd fall in love with.

It's very addictive and has a great sense of humor - a couple of the many, many guns I've found so far include a barrel gun that shoots fish and a bullet that shoots guns.

[jfissel]

Overall - fun side game in the series, but probably towards the bottom of the list. It's tough to get high on the list now. The sailing was fun for a bit, but they just want you to do it too much and there really isn't that much variety to it.

Curious what is at the top of your list? Mine are probably 0, 3 and Like a Dragon.

0 is at the top for sure. It's been a long time since 3 and 4 for me, so they would probably suffer from non-recency bias...though I always had 4 as one of the better ones. I really enjoyed Like a Dragon, slightly more than Infinite Wealth. 6 is still in my mind as a great time, I enjoyed parts of 5 (this is for sure the longest game if you try to do all side quests, etc).

Off the top of my head - 0, Like a Dragon, and 6 as the top 3 in that order. It's a tough question .

[jfissel]

Nintendo Direct today:



Highlights (for me):
Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake is first up in the video, but no release date yet
Patapon 1 & 2 are coming to Switch as a bundle
Everybody's Golf is coming 2025

Highlights (for others):
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond