What have you ACTUALLY played tracker - Modern Edition (2023)

[carlsson]

tl;dr: Play games from 21st century systems and post your times!

For the fifth year in a row, it is time for the Modern gameplay tracker.

 

Here are the links to previous seasons of the tracker: 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022

So what is this?

The basic idea is to post what games you played during each week, and for how long. You don't have to time it down to the minute (though most of us do), and estimates are acceptable. Then, at the end of the week, the stats keeper (that's me) totals everything up and we find out which games and platforms are seeing the most action. Each week, we have top 10 lists for consoles/computers and for individual games.

Guidelines:

1. Be sure to list the system, the name of the game, and the length of time you play. Please note if the game has any alternate titles by which it's better known. If you list multiple games, please group them by platform. If you play on a backwards-compatible system, e.g. Xbox 360 games on the Xbox One or PS2 games on PS3, the game should be listed under the older platform's name. This also means that games predating 2000 played on a modern system should be posted in the classic games tracker. e.g. PS1 games played on PS2, GB/GBC games played on GBA, Wonderswan played on Wonderswan Color, Windows 95/98 games on a newer PC and so forth.

2. Each week runs Monday through Sunday (at midnight), though exceptions may occur around New Year. Try to post your times no later than night to Tuesday in your local timezone. I will generally wait until Tuesday late evening Central European Time before compiling the stats. If you post after stats have been posted, your times will be counted for the next week. Feel free to indicate in your post which dates your times relate to.

 

3. Playing on actual hardware is preferred, although emulators are certainly allowed. In some cases (homebrews in development, rare arcade games) there's no alternative to using an emulator.

4. Our cutoff year is 2000. That is, eligible consoles and computers have to have been first released somewhere in the world after 2000. Basically any systems released around the PlayStation 2, XBox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance or after. Anything released before this time period (including the Sega Dreamcast) please post to the Classic Game Tracker

The same goes for computers: we count Windows XP or newer, but not 98 or older; Mac OS X or newer, but not OS 9 or older; and so on.

 

Note that some of the retro themed all-in-one systems, including enhanced Famiclones, programmable calculators and various super low resolution systems usually belong in this tracker if they represent formats not previously available, even if the style is 20th century.

 

Hey, we even track various in-flight entertainment systems!

5. Arcade games released on or after January 1, 2000 are permitted.

6. You don't just have to post a bare list of times -- comments, stories, images and helpful hints are always encouraged! If you're struggling with a level, got a new high score, or have some thoughts about what's great or what stinks about a particular game...well, that's the kind of stuff that makes this fun to read.

How to make the statskeeper's life easier:

- If you post a big list of games, please consider alphabetizing them first (after grouping them by platform).

- Posting your times in minutes, rather than hours + minutes, makes things a little simpler.

- Even if you don't know the exact time, it's better to post a specific number and say it's an estimate. If you say you posted a bunch of games for "between 20 minutes and an hour", I'll just average everything out to 40 minutes, but it's much better to have a sense of which games you played more and which ones you played less.

 

- If you only post game titles without any indication of how long you played each game, I will assume 5 minutes regardless of how long you may actually have played them. Surely you can play a game for far less - down to a single minute - and specifically mention that, and I'll use that number instead.

- If there's room for confusion or ambiguity, please address that in advance so I don't have to research it myself. Non-US releases, homebrews in progress, alternate titles, and expanded re-releases can get especially tricky.

That about covers it.

If you haven't participated before, or if you did and got busy with other things, consider taking part in 2023! You may find that it has some interesting side effects -- I've found that keeping a log dramatically changes how I think about my own gaming, and mostly for the better (though personally I very rarely play modern games).

 

The first week runs from January 2 - January 8, then it is every week until New Year's Eve and around that. As the calendar looks like for 2023, it will end on Sunday, December 31 but more about that later.

[Hwlngmad]

Today's (1/5/2023) totals were:

 

GBA

1. Lilo & Stitch - 15 minutes

[+jgkspsx]

Great little Metal Slug clone!

[+wongojack]

Wow - have we really already been doing this for 5 years?!

[carlsson]

Yeah, the modern tracker was in jeopardy some time around March-April 2018 before I came to set things straight, like the tracker's own RoboCop.

[neogeo1982]

PS5

 

One Night Stand - 600min platinum trophy

 

Castlevania Advance Collection - 430min

 

 

[Steven Pendleton]

Setting PS2 Tales of the Abyss aside for 3DS version. I miss super broken Guy from the Japanese PS2 version already; that alone is a good enough reason to play that version. He obviously wasn't supposed to be super broken, but it's so damn fun to play as a game-breaking character sometimes. It's also really nice to have the activity log on the 3DS so I don't have to actually put any effort into keeping track of anything on that system.

 

PC
DoDonPachi Resurrection - 31

This has like 6 trillion different versions of DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu, but I'm way too lazy to track them separately, so I won't.
Mushihimesama - 56

Same here, but only 3 games instead of 6 trillion.

 

PS2
Tales of the Abyss (Japan) - 253

 

3DS
NEW LOVEPLUS+ - 143

After like 8 years, I decided to finally get the last version of this game before 3DS game prices go up in a few months. I am not sure who I will date this time, but I don't think I've ever dated Manaka, so I might try Manaka this time. I've never really stuck around for the actual dating part of the game yet, but I've heard it's actually really fun and has a completely insane amount of stuff to do. The dating part runs in real-world time using the system's clock, though, so your girlfriend will get super pissed at you if you forget to play the game on the exact date and time you schedule a date or whatever, so it's just like real life! Does this make it the most realistic game ever?
Tales of the Abyss - 1332

I am enjoying the 3DS version a lot more now than the last time I played it, and it seems that the Japanese 3DS version is actually slightly better than the US 3DS version since the US version is missing some audio effects that are present in every other version, so at least that's good, but yeah, play the Japanese PS2 version instead because it's the best version (and it is the only version where Guy is completely broken, which is fun). Overall, I will have to say Japanese PS2 version > Japanese 3DS version > US PS2 version (mostly because of the crashing problems that are unique to the US PS2 version) > US 3DS version. Don't bother with the US 3DS version at all unless you have absolutely no way to play the PS2 versions.

 

Switch
Sennou Game Teki-Paki - 32

Edited January 8, 2023 by Steven Pendleton

[Hwlngmad]

Additional times from this past week:

 

Android

1) Vampire Survivors - 2 hours

2) Retro Bowl - 3 hours

3) Retro Goal - 1.5 hours

[+wongojack]

PC 

Undertale 131 

 

PS4 

The Last of Us pii 690 

 

Wii 

Super Mario Galaxy 2 95 

 

XOne 

Disc Room 36

 

I wrapped up a playthrough of both Undertale and TLoU pii and posted about them in the games beaten thread.   I'd probably score both games lower than most with Undertale being particularly less than impressive (for me).
 

 

 

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Starting off the new year, I finished Okami HD on the Switch! It took me about 68 hours altogether but I loved every minute of it, so much so that I started it over from the beginning as soon as the credits rolled!

 

Nintendo Switch
Ōkami HD - 570 minutes 

 

 

 

 

[+wongojack]

Hey @carlsson, can you also pin the Modern Games Beaten in 2023 thread?

[carlsson]

I don't have admin rights enough, but ask Albert. Usually he's lightning fast.

[+jgkspsx]

Apple iOS:

 

Times coming once I restart my phone…

 

Duolingo - 20 minutes 

Pikmin Bloom - 299 minutes

Vampire Survivors - 204 minutes

 

This is the last nine minutes of a thirty minute run. Insanity.

 

Nokia N-Gage:

 

Atari Masterpieces II - 5 minutes

 

 

A couple of slow games of Pong against the custom programmed CPU. I won, just barely.

Puzzle Bobble VS - 25 minutes

 

Cleared normal mode.

 

SSX: Out of Bounds - 10 minutes

Impressive game.

 

Sony PlayStation Portable:

 

Driver ‘76 - 20 minutes 

 

Sony PlayStation Vita:

 

Ys Origin - 25 minutes

 

TinyCircuits Thumby:

 

Hollow Seeker - 10 minutes

 

 

VR Technologies VT03 famiclone:

 

Curly Monkey 2 - 10 minutes

Thunder Man - 15 minutes

 

Got relatively far but it resets too fast to get a score.

[carlsson]

Week 01

 

Top games

 

1. Tales of the Abyss (3DS) - 1332 min.
2. Last of Us Part II, The (PS4) - 690 min. (#4)
3. One Night Stand (PS5) - 600 min.
4. Okami HD (Switch) - 570 min. (#5)
5. Castlevania Advance Collection (PS5) - 430 min.
6. Pikmin Bloom (iOS) - 299 min. (#9)
7. Tales of the Abyss (Japan) (PS2) - 253 min. (#2)
8. Vampire Survivors (iOS) - 204 min.
9. Retro Bowl (Android) - 180 min.
10. NEW LOVEPLUS+ (3DS) - 143 min.

 

Top systems

 

1. 3DS - 1475 min.
2. PS5 - 1030 min.
3. PS4 - 690 min. (#1)
4. Switch - 602 min. (#4)
5. iOS - 523 min. (#6)
6. Android - 390 min.
7. PS2 - 253 min. (#2)
8. PC - 218 min. (#3)
9. Wii - 95 min. (#5)
10. Nokia N-Gage - 40 min.

 

Total 5447 minutes and 28 different games (of which 14 new) on 16 different systems, with 6 participants.

 

Tales of the Abyss switches its main system from PS2 to 3DS and this new entry becomes #1 by a margin of almost twice the number of #2 Last of Us Part II. Yet the modern tracker actually is 6 hours behind the classic this week! On the systems list, the 3DS is almost 7.5 hours ahead of the PS5 and grabs a somewhat unusual first place.

[Parker77]

So far this week:

 

Bloodstained - XB1 - 490min

Dirt 5 - PS5 - 60min

Wolfenstein 2 - PS4 -2190min

 

[+jgkspsx]

This game lasted about 20 minutes. Can anybody guess what it is?

Germans will have a strong advantage...

 

Bonus screenshot from another pinball game...

 

[+wongojack]

I like it, but I don't know it.

[Steven Pendleton]

Only 2 things here, I think.

 

3DS
NEW LOVEPLUS+ - 133
Tales of the Abyss - 991

I miss broken Guy. Oh well.

[Wayler]

Managed to get some serious gaming done over the weekend, due to having minimal family obligations. I think it's called free time. Santa brought me GC games and was finally able to test them. I learned that:

1. Hit & Run is awesome

2. Drill Land has an amazing soundtrack. 

3. I really suck at Metal Gear Solid

4. My action replay / freeloader works about only once in seven tries, so testing the japanese games was a pain.

 

GAMECUBE

Kururin Squash! - 12 min
Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes - 30 min
Mr Driller: Drill Land - 30 min
Need for Speed: Most Wanted - 17 min
Nintendo Puzzle Collection - 38 min
Shikigami No Shiro II - 15 min
The Simpsons: Hit & Run - 295 min
Wave Race: Blue Storm - 25 min

[carlsson]

On 1/12/2023 at 10:45 AM, Parker77 said:

Bloodstained - XB1 - 490min

Welcome! I see we have two entries for Bloodstained in the tracker: Ritual of the Night and the retro-styled companion game Curse of the Moon, which even has a sequel. Unless otherwise indicated, I'll assume it was the "full" version RotN, but feel free to adjust that if required.

[Kurt_Woloch]

Here are my times for this past week (January 9th through 15th, 2023) on modern systems...

 

Browser based:

Reverse Pac Man by Distracted Coder - 46 min.

 

Reveerse Pac Man is a game where you play the ghosts instead of Pac-Man, and Pac-Man is a NPC trying to eat everything or flee from the ghosts. The player steers the ghosts by regularly stopping the game and issuing new commands to the ghosts telling them which way they should turn on the next intersections. I did manage to complete the game at first try.

 

[+wongojack]

PC 

Pong Quest 69 

Rebel Galaxy 308 

 

PS4 

Pinball Arcade, The 135 

 

WiiU 

Super Mario Maker 103 

 

XOne 
Disc Room 63 

Life is Strange 180

 

I finally finished the main story in Rebel Galaxy and posted about it here:  https://forums.atariage.com/topic/346329-modern-games-beaten-in-2023/?do=findComment&comment=5190574

 

I also created a "tiered list" of all the games that I played for more than 200 mins in 2022.  You can check that out here:  

 

[+jgkspsx]

On 1/15/2023 at 10:04 AM, Steven Pendleton said:

3DS
NEW LOVEPLUS+ - 133

At first I thought you meant this.

 

Highly recommended if you like weird crap! I think that one will end my week.

[+jgkspsx]

Apple iOS:

Duolingo - 102 minutes

Pikmin Bloom - 208 minutes.

 

 

At the cost of a lot of walking, a lot of application crashes, a lot of irritating micromanaging, five American dollars, and my pride, I managed to complete the set of 2023 new year pikmin.

 

Vampire Survivors - ummmmm…

 …

…

1072 minutes

 

In my defense, look at this!!!

 

 

I did beat the game in a sense in that I managed to kill all the stagekillers and make it to the unkillable grim reaper himself:

 

 

Nintendo 3DS:

Love Hero - 13 minutes

 

Nintendo DS:

Curling DS - 16 minutes

 

Nintendo Game Boy Advance:

Jazz Jackrabbit - 35 minutes

 

Nintendo New 3DS:

Ironfall Invasion - 14 minutes

The Queen TV-Game 2 - 15 minutes

Gal Galaxy Pain - 5 minutes

 

Sunplus SPG:

(as manifested in the MyArcade Gamer X Portable)

These games are several steps above the VT0x famiclone games in polish and presentation and originality. They are still mostly very short but there are some substantial ones here too. If you can get one without the accursed hard rubber dpad that MyArcade liked using for a while I wouldn’t warn you away from it.

 

Benthal Jewel - 35 minutes

Competent but much too easy Columns clone. Would be awesome for kids or old people.

 

Minibee - 12 minutes

The only total dog of the games I tried. Incredibly slow and boring Space Invaders clone where they never actually move down.

 

Motorboat - 5 minutes

okay if meh game. Very reminiscent of Street Racer on the 2600.
 

Pinball - 15 minutes

Janky but not unfun game in the weird round style that got popular in the 2000s. The weirdness of the levels makes it worth playing.

 

Return Capsule - 45 minutes

Very good “slide your character” puzzler. Got totally stuck on puzzle 18 and put it down - it turned itself off!!

 

Telescope Pole - 20 minutes

Fascinating original puzzler, like nothing I’ve played before. Unfortunately, it was very easy and exceptionally short. Maybe only 8 or 10 levels?

 

Tennis - 25 minutes

Really quite decent and fun. Very odd that it is in the first person pov. Very hard, but I have resigned myself to being bad at tennis games.

 

VR Technologies VT03:

Antiquarium - 15 minutes

I bet you can’t guess what kind of game this is from the name and the screenshot. (

Spoiler

It’s a fishing game.

)

[Skippy B. Coyote]

Just a tiny bit of time on Ōkami this week, since I found myself getting distracted from gaming by a bunch of different real life stuff and some other hobbies. I did manage to play some Atari 2600 for the High Score Club and classic tracker too though

 

 

Nintendo Switch

Ōkami HD - 55 minutes