Read more about Rogue’s Adventures on my blog. For updates follow @RoguesAdventure, join the Facebook page and Steam group. For videos Follow me on Twitch and Subscribe on YouTube.

carmageddon wrecked

Last Season I bemoaned my dwindling gaming time. Real life has definitely caught up to me in my 30s, with a family and a steady writing career. The final stake was selling our old house and buying a new one this Summer, which completely turned my life upside down for a solid 2 months. Only just now getting back on track!

I still find time to play games with friends, and obviously I write about them. My backlog gaming is the thing that’s suffered the most.

Last year in Season Six I was able to finish nine games. Now I finished four – and it took me an extra month. Granted these were longer games, but the writing is definitely on the wall.

So, Rogue’s Adventures will undergo some changes. For now, let’s recap Season Seven – the Season of Kickstarter Games!

Season Seven Schedule

Game Estimated Hours to Complete Start Date Total Hours/Completion Date Goal
Carmageddon: Reincarnation 16hrs 1/11/2016 14hrs/Jan 25, 2016 1/27/2016
Hard West 24hrs 2/16/2016 21hrs/Mar 14, 2016 3/15/2016
Shadowrun: Hong Kong 30hrs 3/22/2016 22hrs/May 2, 2016 4/20/2016
Grim Dawn 35hrs 5/10/2016 24hrs/Aug 1, 2016 6/30/2016
  • Carmageddon: Reincarnation – 16 hours in 15 days = 7.46 hrs/wk
  • Hard West – 24 hours in 28 days = 6 hrs/wk
  • Shadowrun: Hong Kong – 22 hours in 41 days = 3.75 hrs/wk
  • Grim Dawn – 24 hours in 84 days = 2 hrs/wk

Total Hours: 84 (Estimated 105)

Total Average Hours per Week: 4.8

hard west suspicious

As you can see, the Season started off well enough early in the year. I blazed through Carmageddon in January. After PAX South in February I still managed to keep up with Hard West, despite both XCOM 2 and Fire Emblem Fates launching. Both games I would play the crap out of and write reviews and articles for.

Then things really fell off the rails. Shadowrun fell way off as my freelance writing picked up. I also got terribly addicted to Stardew Valley! And I started poor Grim Dawn the week before we decided to move/sell. Craziness.

For the first time ever I missed a deadline goal, and missed it bad. Since Season Two I’ve given exactly six months per Season. Season Seven will be the final one in that format.

Season Seven Stats (with last Season’s numbers)

  • Tweets by @RoguesAdventure: 148 (340), Total tweets: 5, 597
  • Total Number of Screenshots Taken: 591 (1936)
  • Average Number of Screenshots per Game: 148 (215)
  • Most Screen Captured Game: Grim Dawn with 220 (Tales from the Borderlands 669)
  • Total Games Completed: 4 (9)

Not surprising that all the numbers are way lower. My use of the twitter account continues to nosedive, and I may finally drop it entirely. Conversely I may attempt to pick back up streaming or recording gameplay videos. New house/area = better internet!

shadowrun hong kong kindly cheng

Season Seven Rankings

  1. Grim Dawn – Several great concepts and solid gameplay make this indie ARPG a worthy successor to Titan Quest.
  2. Shadowrun: Hong Kong – Another fun Shadowrun adventure, but overall weaker than Dragonfall as the series hits its gameplay limits.
  3. Hard West – A fun XCOM-lite in a dark Western setting hampered by its tight indie budget and odd campaign structure.
  4. Carmageddon: Reincarnation – Frustrating controls and frequent crashes prevent this nostalgic remake from stepping out of the shadow of the original 90s car-smasher.

By far the easiest rankings I’ve ever had to do. Carmageddon was buggy and controlled poorly. Hard West had some neat ideas but was pretty lackluster and limiting. Shadowrun was fun but I reached my peak on what I wanted from that same engine and structure. Grim Dawn was a solid ARPG that I didn’t have time to fully dive into.

Overall this Season was mostly disappointing.

grim dawn

Rogue’s Adventures has been going strong since late 2012, motivating me to play and finish nearly 60 games that otherwise sit in my backlog. The main pillars – chronicling my journey via screenshots and writing my Final Thoughts, will remain in future backlog games.

The change comes to the schedule. Instead of trying to schedule out games and dates to play as motivation, I’m going to use my friends.

Earlier this year I created a backlog game schedule for a friend, and it was incredibly fun to watch him go through them and hear this thoughts (we plucked them from several years worth of my Top Ten Game of the Year lists).

So going forward we’re going to motivate each other to play through backlog games – when time permits. Either playing the same game, or challenging each other to different ones within the same time frame. I may try and rope some other friends in as well.

This will ultimately mean less games per year, and even more infrequent Final Thoughts. But if you enjoy my writing, you can find my professional work on many websites, most notably Pixelkin.org.

shadowrun hong kong ending

Read more about Rogue’s Adventures on my blog. For updates follow @RoguesAdventure, join the Facebook page and Steam group. For videos Follow me on Twitch and Subscribe on YouTube.