Week of 05 Feb 2023
“Do your thang and get fixin’!”
Achievements Earned In:
- Quantum Conundrum 🎮
- Charon’s Staircase 🎮
- Overwatch 2 🎮
- Human Fall Flat 🎮
- Sonic & Knuckles 🎮
- Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins 🎮
- Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality 🎮
- Disney’s Bolt 🎮
Started off the week with Quantum Conundrum, and polishing off the base game’s achievements was just a matter of quickly grabbing the hidden collectible in the hub area, then jumping into the “Choose Wisely” level to complete in the remaining three ways I needed. This took almost no time, so it was on to the final add-on’s wing. IKE-aramba!, like the other add-on content, is only a handful of stages of a mid-level difficulty that took me a couple hours to knock out. Of course, I continued using the glitch to complete them within the required goals, and even completing the final level without said shortcut was easy enough. And…wow, I can’t believe I knocked this one out! If I’d known about that glitch I would’ve gotten around to this ages ago. I’ve always wanted to try this game out, so it was a win all around.
Achievements unlocked: 25 (+7) | Completed
A pug is never a “victory”.
Next Gamefly rental in my goal to play a few of the least-played 2022 releases arrived, and this time it was Charon’s Staircase. A first-person spooky puzzle game, there’s actually very little info around the internet on how to complete this. I had to dig through a good few SEO catchers to finally find seemingly the only guide on the internet…and it’s in German. It’s a good thing the game is simple enough, so all I had to do was follow alongside the video in my game and all of the achievements came when they were supposed to. Oh, except for the one for collecting all of character photos sprinkled throughout the house, even though I didn’t miss any! Once my first playthrough was complete, I jumped in again to get that other achievement, assuming I’d have to run through the whole thing again. But, much to my relief, it popped after only a few were re-collected. I’m not sure if one of the ones I picked up unglitched the achievement, or when I jumped into the menu it did. All-in-all, it’s definitely a short completion, a creepy atmosphere, and an interesting story. I definitely recommend! I actually tried to make my own walkthrough to help the community, but…my footage corrupted. Ope!
Achievements unlocked: 20 (+20) | Completed
I’m…sure that’s okay to check out. Let’s find out!
While I awaited my next (final!) rental from Gamefly, I decided to check out Overwatch 2 now that the new season had started. This meant I could now outright purchase Ramattra, the newest character and “add-on” to take away my completion. I bought the character, absolutely assuming I’d have to wait until a boosting session came up to get the two achievements. Well…obviously, that wasn’t the case, and I’d say Ramattra’s are some of the easiest character achievements in the game. That’s the game completed again, and it doesn’t appear Blizzard added any new achievements or characters (yet) for this season. A much-welcome break!
Achievements unlocked: 162 (+2) | Completed
Speaking of games that keep getting achievements, I figured I’d jump over to Human Fall Flat on Tuesday and knock out the new “Miniature” level that was added back in mid-January. It was the usual, with a couple miscellaneous tasks to do around the level, then an achievement for completing it. There wasn’t really a tough one this time, so I just quickly ran through the add-on and packed this away. Again.
Achievements unlocked: 103 (+4) | Completed
I still had time on Tuesday, so it was time to move back to my Dive games. With two left, I went with the one I was least looking forward to: Sonic & Knuckles. I still cannot see why these games are seen as classic! They’re not fun, and are just a pain to play! Sonic/Knuckles/Tails control so floaty and constantly take just that one extra step when they land to run into something or fall off a platform. It was so annoying! Anyway, doesn’t matter, the only reason I’d even touch these games is because they have a save state system as part of the Sega Vintage Collection, so I can just keep saves at safe places to revert to if needed. This is of course most helpful when going for the 100 rings and collect all seven chaos emeralds achievements, but is nice to have in general. The first playthrough was much easier once I learned I could transform into Super Sonic at-will and sprint through stages and bosses. The second playthrough, as Knuckles, was a little more annoying without that power, but it was also a noticeably shorter run. That’s all of these completed!
Achievements unlocked: 12 (+11) | Completed
Jim Carrey put you up to this, didn’t you?!
The final rental to arrive from Gamefly is actually a double feature of two Doctor Who titles (from 2021), and I started with Doctor Who: The Lonely Assassins. It was marked on TA as the shorter of the two, so I figured it’d be a good place to start. Boy oh boy, was this game boring. It’s a mystery title taking place entirely on a smartphone the main character finds just…out of nowhere. I feel like that’s the impetus for every major narrative beat in this game: somethings happens, then something else happens, and for some reason this normal dude is just dragged along into a Doctor Who story. We do some light internet research, put two and two together, and that’s repeated ad nauseum until the end. There’s also no background music, so you’re sitting there texting with a fake person in total quiet and it’s just…not super fun. Such a shame, because other games like Telling Lies did this premise so well! Maybe the game is saved some by fandom, but for me it was a chore, and I was glad when I was done.
Achievements unlocked: 16 (+16) | Completed
Truly thrilling gameplay.
I didn’t have high hopes for enjoyment when moving to the second game, Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality. Like the previous, I didn’t know anything about it besides the licensing, so I was expecting probably another simple puzzle title or something. Instead, this is far more of an actual game! It’s a first person puzzle title, with your (again) nobody getting sucked into the Doctor’s adventures, facing off against the Daleks, Cybermen, and Weeping Angels in an effort to stop the end of all reality. And each section feels slightly different, bouncing between the horror of avoiding the Lonely Assassins in a crypt, then over to shooting down Daleks and drones, then stealthing around the Cybership. None of these sections are very long (the entire game is only a few hours) but it’s a nice mix. Achievement-wise, there are a nice mix of storyline and miscellaneous achievements, with the usual collectibles to snag. This one takes a little more skill than the other, but it’s still a very simple and easy completion, though I ran into a game-breaking glitch that was easily fixed with a reload. And, dare I say, the game was enjoyable?
Achievements unlocked: 30 (+30) | Completed
In a painting?! What next, a smartphone???
This is it! After foolishly starting my 2022 Bean Dive over on TA thinking I could maybe get the games on my ‘tag, then completed ASAP before my life exploded, I’m finally down to the final game from those I popped an achievement in: Disney’s Bolt. Not much to say so far, as I didn’t have the motivation to play this on Saturday, but it’s a pretty basic kid’s platformer. I haven’t even had my headset on because I don’t wanna listen to knock off Miley Cyrus while dragging myself through this completion.
Achievements unlocked: 10 (+9) | Completion: 27%
Highest ratio: 10.97
The floor is lava (Human Fall Flat)
Lowest ratio: 1.00
Will you answer the call? (Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality)
