Pixelated Sausage - Attack the Backlog

I always preferred Batman: Arkham Asylum to Batman: Arkham City, but the gap this time was much larger and I have to assume it's at least partially due to the time gap between playthroughs being so small this time around; I just think playing these games back to back does Arkham City no favors. That said, and regardless of how time affected my feelings, I still think Arkham City is a worse game in almost every way, going for quantity over quality (except when it comes to the main storyline, which is actually shorter than Arkham Asylum's). It is by no means bad, man, but unlike its older brother, it's no "greatest game of all time" contender.

It's been a while since I've replayed a game, since I put out an episode of Second Runs, but when I decided it was finally time to play Batman: Arkham Knight, I knew what needed to be done first: replay every Arkham game that came before (and play the ones I never played for the first time). That brings us here, with me revisiting Batman: Arkham Asylum for not the second time, but the third time--which I only learned after booting up the remastered version and seeing a 72% completion save in front of me. Long story short: Arkham Asylum is not only a great Batman game, but one of the greatest games of all time, and if you want the long story long, check out this episode and enjoy.

Welcome, everyone, to a brand new show: The Last Call. (I technically called it Attack the Backlog because I recorded this episode before coming up with the new name, but every episode forward will be correctly branded). What is The Last Call? It's really quite simple: The Last Call is a show all about games that have received their final papers, their death sentence, the final nail in the coffin, however you want to phrase it, and are not long for this world; this can be due to being delisted, having their servers shut down, or any other finality in between. This inaugural episode is all about Hood: Outlaws & Legends, a PvPvE heist game that feels more like a mode in a full game than a full game on its own. The real question, though, is will Hood: Outlaws & Legends be remembered for everything it did, or forgotten for everything it didn't.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was good...until it wasn't. That's not entirely true. It never got bad, per se, it just went on and on for way too long, wearing out its welcome multiple times over. The real kicker, though--the thing that made me go from liking Survivor to (kind of) hating it--is the story--one specific aspect in particular. I won't spoil anything in this text description, but the same can't be said about this episode, so if you don't want to be spoiled, avoid this until you've played the game yourself. All I'll say is, when one character turned out to be bad, I wasn't surprised; however, when something else happened, you better believe I was surprised (and not in a good way).

Thanks in large part to my Star Wars rewatch journey of 2025, but also because I overall enjoyed my time with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, I returned to Cal Kestis and his adventures in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. While a lot of things are the same, there are key differences that make Survivor feel like its own game, including much larger and open areas, fast travel (thank god), and a better and more interesting cast of characters, as well as just a fleshing out the characters we met in Fallen Order. We'll see if Survivor manages to top Fallen Order when all is said and done, but, for now, so far so good.

Surprising no one, my opinion of Hi-Fi Rush didn't change since the last episode; if anything, it got worse. I still think it's a very pretty game, but at no point did I enjoy playing it. The worst part, though, is how disappointing the soundtrack is; in a game all about integrating music and gameplay, more is rightfully expected and Tango Gameworks failed to deliver and great and memorable soundtrack, forever keeping Hi-Fi Rush in a meadow of mediocrity.

Hi-Fi Rush is soooo pretty. Everything about it from an artistic standpoint is some of the best I've seen in a video game in years. That's why it pains me to say the rest of the game disappoints; from the music selection to the gameplay and everything in between, everything else in Hi-Fi Rush fails to reach the same heights as the art and animation. Things could change since I'm only halfway through, but I'm not expecting much despite hoping for the opposite.

I am happy to report that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order gets better and better as it goes on, from eventually adding a double jump to introducing some of the coolest set pieces I've played in years. While Fallen Order may be rough around the edges--though not as rough as this episode or last--the core is as strong as any Force user and I couldn't be more excited to play Survivor in hopes it only builds from here--spoilers: I won't be waiting long to see if it does.

This episode is a bit rough around the edges as the new format for Attack the Backlog is just around the corner (after all the Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Hi-Fi Rush episodes are out), but even so, it's still a solid time. Having played six hours of Fallen Order so far, I find myself enjoying the game, but not without issue. It feels good, looks good, and runs good enough, but the story so far is not quite there and some of the enemies are more annoying than challenging, but we're still early on in the game, so here's to hoping it only gets better from here and goes from "kinda strong" to simply..."strong."

This one is 100% my fault. If I paid any attention, I would have known what kind of game Exoprimal was--a team-based action game about completing the same objectives over and over again until you get so good you can do them in your sleep--but I didn't pay attention; instead, I let myself become disappointed by the game not meeting my uninformed expectations, so that's on me. That said, even after I accepted what the game is, it still failed to grab me in a way that kept me wanting to see more, a "more" people say exists, but I'll never know since I got more than my fix after hitting hour six.