A Fool and His Pile

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We've made it to April already. It is with a sad heart that I announce this will be the last Pile of Shame thread. Some changes are coming and I'm not going to be able to keep up. It's been fun and I'll miss it.*

If you're interested, m0nk3yboy, has the 12 month pile plan thread over here.

A quick reminder, in order to be considered "Pile of Shame" the game needs to be at least three months old. Otherwise, it's just a new game you haven't gotten to playing yet.

Also, if you are curious about some of the previous threads, Pick's of the Pile, etc... Please go here and check out the Google doc I setup.

Let's get on to the games!

This month's Pick of the Pile is

[size=30]Persona 3[/size]

IMAGE(http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e355/stawnkald/Persona3Small.jpg)

"A group of high schoolers have a dangerous extracurricular activity: exploring the mysterious tower Tartarus and fighting the sinister Shadows during the Dark Hour, a frozen span of time unknown to normal humans." (Atlus.com)

[size=8]* - April Fools's suckers! You can't get rid of me[/size]

[u]Multi-Platform[/u]
Alan Wake - Garden Ninja
Assassin's Creed 2 - Luggage
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood - MadGav, Kraint
Assassin's Creed Revelations - SallyNasty, casktapper
Bioshock - ChrisGwinn
Bioshock 2 - Tanglebones
Bulletstorm - iaintgotnopants
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - AndrewA
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - Rykin
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - brokenclavicle
Catherine - SixteenBlue
Costume Quest and DLC - AUs_TBirD
Crono Trigger - AUs_TBirD
Deus Ex: Human Revolution- Tanglebones
Deus Ex: Human Revolution DLC - stevenmack, Tanglebones
Dragon Age: Origins - MadcapLaugher, GioClark, philucifer
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron - beeporama
Fable 2 - Yoreel
Fallout 3 - [color=gray]AndrewA[/color]
Final Fantasy XIII - Demyx
Marvel Super Hero Squad - Comic Combat - m0nk3yboy
Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet - m0nk3yboy
Mass Effect - jdzappa
Mass Effect 2 - Itsatrap, infromsea
Mass Effect 2 DLC - brokenclavicle
Megamind Ultimate Showdown - m0nk3yboy
Portal 2 - maddoc1979, ChrisGwinn, Joshubuh, AUs_TBirD
Rayman Origins - casktapper
Resident Evil 5 - honeycut1
Risen - stevenmack
Saints Row the Third - Dysplastic
Sam and Max 301: The Penal Zone - Garden Ninja
Sam & Max 302: The Tomb of Sammun-Ma - Garden Ninja
Sam & Max 303: They Stole Max's Brain! - Garden Ninja
Sam & Max 304: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls - Garden Ninja
Sam and Max 305: The City That Dares Not Sleep - Garden Ninja
SEGA Rally Online Arcade - m0nk3yboy
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure - m0nk3yboy
SpaceChem - Itsatrap
Tropico 4 - Quintin_Stone
Warhammer 40K: Space Marine - MadGav
Warzone Anomaly HD - AndrewA

[u]PC[/u]
Amnesia: The Dark Descent - AUs_TBirD
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars - Hemi
The Cat and the Coup - AUs_TBirD
Lands of Lore - stevenmack
Sequence - AndrewA
Settlers 7 - MadGav
Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty - Rykin, Quintin_Stone
Star Wars: The Old Republic (main quest) - jdzappa
Teen Agent - AUs_TBirD

Xbox 360
Deadly Premonition - Poppinfresh
The Gunstringer - Apollo0507

[u]PS3[/u]
3D Dot Game Heroes - mrtomaytohead

[u]PS2[/u]
Mark of Kri - AUs_TBirD
Persona 3 - ClockworkHouse, SixteenBlue

[u]iOS[/u]
Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP - shoptroll

[u]DS[/u]
999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - ClockworkHouse
Radiant Historia - [color=gray]ClockworkHouse[/color]

[u]3DS[/u]
Mario Kart 7 - shoptroll
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box - [color=gray]ClockworkHouse[/color]

[u]NES[/u]
Power Blade - AUs_TBirD

Deus Ex has been put on hold, so put me down for Mario Kart 7 (3DS) since Xenoblade is releasing on Friday and I think I'll be hitting that for most of the month.

As always, thanks for doing this.

Assassin's Creed Revelations on 360 for me.

Put me down for Dragon Age: Origins on PC. I'll be spending April between that and The Witcher 2 (Which I don't expect to finish).

Edit: Added platform.

Here's a question - would I be able to put down Star Wars The Old Republic, at least in terms of finishing my character questline? If so, please put me down for SWTOR.

If not, please put me down again for Mass Effect 1.

2 weeks of vacation away in March and a busy work schedule upon returning made finishing a game as short as Portal 2 difficult...only got to chapter 4 last month. So, it's Portal 2 again this month.

I'm currently playing a game that's too recent to be a pile game, but I just had to say I fell for the bit about this being the last pile thread. I *am* April's fool.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent (PC) has been survived - albeit a day too late to meet my March pledge. As everyone knows, it's really good, and really scary. I'm gonna go hide under my covers now.

Also, I'm pledging Chrono Trigger (DS/multi) for this month.

Carrying forward Dragon Age: Origins (360) from last month. Hope I can keep the same pace

List should be current. jdzappa, I put you down for both, get to it!

Put me down for some Mass Effect 2 DLC madness!

And throw in a little Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, please

Going to try to finish Bioshock 2 finally (on PC); I'm about halfway through, I think (just dealt with the Wales Bros.)

Hemidal wrote:

List should be current. jdzappa, I put you down for both, get to it!

Woot - thanks Hemidal! It's now an epic battle between Femshep and Femclonecommando! Hot Jennifer Hale on Hale action!

Settlers 7. 9 hours into it and fantastic!

Just started Assassin's Creed Brotherhood on 360.

Mass Effect 2 - I just barely missed finishing it in March, and I expect I'll have it finished in the next couple of weekends! Sadly, I don't have any of the DLC, so I'll have to dig the game out of my pile again later in the year, but the important part is that finishing this level-30 playthrough means I can move on to other games.

SpaceChem is in the queue for April; I'm 2/3 of the way through but got bogged down with the trickier levels. Still, I want to make it all the way through at least once, even if my solutions are messy and inefficient.

Since I sunk two hours into Bulletstorm today when I should have been working, I guess I'll try to finish that this month.

Carrying forward Alan Wake w/DLC from March. I actually just finished the main game tonight, so only the DLC episodes are left. After that will probably be a TVTropes binge starting on the Alan Wake page.

I think I'll also pledge Costume Quest (PC/multi) even though the PC port could have been better (specifically, clarity of controls).

Also, I'll take another stab at The Mark of Kri (PS2). I've finished 2 of 6 levels and it's been going quickly on the rare occasions I did play it.

Depending on how all of that goes, I might throw Portal 2 on there later as well.

------------------------------------------------

Just wanted to add a little more about Amnesia:

Everyone has heard about the awesome sound design, and it is, indeed, awesome, but the sense of tension this game builds up is amazing. Part of it is probably my own fault since I had 15 jars of oil and 53 tinderboxes in my inventory at the end, but frequently seeing - or think you're seeing - something moving just on the edge of the screen is really unnerving. Same goes for enemies that pass by only to disappear. I have a fear of being in any body of water in which I can't see the bottom because my mind thinks something unpleasant can sneak up on me in it, so a section about 1/3 through the game was extremely nerve wracking to me.
Not enough mention seems to be given to the controls, either. The depth of manipulation and having to emulate movements via the mouse is something I haven't seen outside of touch-screen interfaces.
I can't remember ever having played a game in which I'm frantically running away from a seen or unseen threat at breakneck pace, taking the moment to slam doors shut behind me in the hope that it buys me an extra second or two - and actually experiencing my character's fear in myself as well!

Brilliant!

Final Fantasy XIII. With several chapters to go, PAX East coming up and Xenoblade after that, there's very little chance I'll actually finish it though.

I'll be finishing Sequence (PC) this month, barring another catastrophic PC meltdown.

I also intend in finishing Fallout 3 (PS3), which I started last month.

I'm hoping to finish Portal 2 (Xbox) this month.

I'm going to carry forward Persona 3, although who knows how that'll end up with Xenoblade Chronicles out at the end of this week. I might finish P3 before moving on, but we'll see.

I'd also like to carry forward Radiant Historia. It's on the bubble to maybe abandon, but I'll give it another go once I'm finished with Kid Icarus and decide then.

I don't even know anymore.

Probably keep plugging away at Persona 3. I'm currently playing Hard Reset as well.

Risen 2 is out at the end of the month so it's past time I finished the first one, so put me down for Risen in which I am making reasonable progress. Hopefully I'll also get around to the Missing Link DLC for Deus Ex: Human Rev shortly as well, I'm rapidly approaching that part of the game on my current playthrough (I'm assuming it slots into the main game when you hit that point?).

Hm. For now, let's say Saint's Row 3. I'm about half-way through and loving it. Definitely will finish by the end of the month.
After that, we'll see. Got a few options.

I'm going to put work into my Skyrim mannequin mod this month. Once that's down, I'll take a long hard look at my pile.

Time to hit up Fable 2. It has been sitting for a few months now ,waiting for me to play it after using up my goozex points to get it.

AUs_TBirD wrote:

Also, I'll take another stab at The Mark of Kri (PS2). I've finished 2 of 6 levels and it's been going quickly on the rare occasions I did play it.

Yeesh - boy am I coming to regret those words. Levels 1 and 2 were reasonably brief. Level three was a marathon that lasted nearly 3 hours! The difficulty was also significantly higher. I'm hoping for some relief, but signs (number of videos in a youtube longplay) point to "no".

AUs_TBirD wrote:
AUs_TBirD wrote:

Also, I'll take another stab at The Mark of Kri (PS2). I've finished 2 of 6 levels and it's been going quickly on the rare occasions I did play it.

Yeesh - boy am I coming to regret those words. Levels 1 and 2 were reasonably brief. Level three was a marathon that lasted nearly 3 hours! The difficulty was also significantly higher. I'm hoping for some relief, but signs (number of videos in a youtube longplay) point to "no".

Are you still enjoying it though? I tried playing Mark of Kri a couple years ago after a buddy raved about it, and while it was a cool concept for a combat system, and the setting was super neat, I just could not get into it. The difficulty you mention didn't help, either. I ended up dumping it. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts if you are digging and just hit a stumbling block, but if you're not, dump it. If anyone could use a backlog purge, it's you.

I stopped playing Witcher (my pile game from March), just lost interest in the first town area. Something about that game just does not hook me.

So, I moved on and played through Portal 2, that one is off my list.

I started Mass Effect 2 on PC, that is my pile game for this month.

Tim

(and, as others have said, thanks for running this thread, you got me with the "ending it" joke. I actually thought, crap, first buzz out loud ends, now this... is nothing sacred?)

Garden Ninja wrote:

Are you still enjoying it though? I tried playing Mark of Kri a couple years ago after a buddy raved about it, and while it was a cool concept for a combat system, and the setting was super neat, I just could not get into it. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts if you are digging and just hit a stumbling block, but if you're not, dump it. If anyone could use a backlog purge, it's you.

It's alright. I mostly enjoy it when I get to playing it, but I don't often feel 'drawn' to firing it up. The most onerous thing to me so far are coming to a full stop when I bump into something, and having to go through "put away weapon, pull out weapon" animations at dumb times. There are some rather frustrating moments, too, such as having to fight in a forest and getting my sword stuck in trees all the time.

As for your suggestion....I often binge, but I never purge

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