Hot Time in the Old Pile Tonight - Pile of Shame - June 2024

While it's not officially summer, we've already hit 100 degrees in South Texas. So, close enough...

Time to make use of the air conditioning and chip away at that backlog.

Some housekeeping notes.

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.

If you're interested, trueheart78, has the 12 month 2024 pile plan thread over here.

Also, if you are curious about some of the previous threads, Picks of the Pile, etc... Please go here and check out the spreadsheet I setup.

This month's Pick of the Pile is

Dave the Diver


IMAGE(https://www.pcgamesn.com/wp-content/sites/pcgamesn/2023/07/Dave-the-Diver-550x309.jpg)
"The game follows Dave, a diver who is approached by his friend Cobra into starting up a sushi restaurant venture with the skilled chef Bancho. Setting up location at the Blue Hole, a spot said to contain fish from all over the world, Dave is tasked with fishing for ingredients during the day, and helping Bancho with the restaurant at night. During his escapades, Dave comes across a race of sea people which leads him to the mystery behind the random earthquakes that have been occurring." (Wikipedia)

Multi-Platform
Actual Sunlight - AUs_TBirD
Blaster Master Zero - brokenclavicle
Chained Echoes - Stele
Dave the Diver - brokenclavicle
Dragon Age: Inquisition - jdzappa
Fishing Vacation - brokenclavicle
Harvestella - brokenclavicle
Marvel Midnight Suns - jdzappa
Star Wars: Jedi Survivor - mrtomaytohead
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life - Forlorn Hope

PC
Warhammer Total War 3: Rise of Chaos Dwarfs DLC - jdzappa
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria - jdzappa

PS5
God of War: Ragnarök - Stele

Switch
Luigi's Mansion 3 - Forlorn Hope

Wii
Pandora's Tower - AUs_TBirD

GBA
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap - Hemi

Still working on Chained Echoes on Switch (multi).

Finally got back into God of War: Ragnarök (PS5) this week as well, so maybe I can finally finish it.

Put me down for Star Wars: Jedi Survivor (PC/Multi). I started it last month, but have been so into the gameplay and running around the game world, that I'm taking a long time to get through the game. This is to my complete amazement since most of the game is spent among desert-like environments, which I tend to not enjoy. This game is just hitting that well for me. Between, Immortals of Aveum, Super Mario Wonder, and Jedi Survivor, I may have my top 3 for the year.

Let's try this again. I will declare Yakuza 6: The Song of life (Multi) (Steam) and Luigi's Mansion 3 (Switch). Then cross off Luigi's Mansion 3 since I beat it yesterday.

Mostly carrying over from last month with one new inclusion:

Marvel Midnight Suns
Warhammer Total War 3: Rise of Chaos Dwarfs DLC
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

Carrying over Harvestella. I should be able to wrap it up in the next two weeks at most. Might added other, smaller titles as my monthly picks, but I'm playing it conservatively for now.

Got a knock off handheld and started playing Minish Cap on it, then I ran into some save bugs and overall system stability issues. Flash forward to an expansion pack later and I'm playing Minish Cap on my Switch.

Hemidal wrote:

Got a knock off handheld and started playing Minish Cap on it, then I ran into some save bugs and overall system stability issues. Flash forward to an expansion pack later and I'm playing Minish Cap on my Switch. :D

Minish Cap and Wind Waker are part of my favorite era of Zelda games. The former is my favorite of the portable games, the latter my favorite of the non-portables. I keep wanting to play them both again. I may do so this or next year.

Oh, and I have now beaten Harvestella. Not sure what to pick next while I wait for Shadow of the Erd Tree.

In the spirit of playing short things here and there, and getting ready for Elden Ring's DLC, I'll declare a veritable shortie:

Fishing Vacation (Multi)

Aaaand that really was a quick and short pick. Fishing Vacation is down, having gotten all five endings. It's a nice little time killer with throwback gameplay and graphics that emulate the old Gameboy well. The bitesized horror is also a little bit humorous. Recommended if you have no more than 5 bucks and a handful of hours to kill.

Declaring:
Actual Sunlight (PC/multi) - Some low-hanging fruit for June. Haven't started yet, but it's supposed to be very short.
Pandora's Tower (Wii) - Finished the first of 12 (13?) towers. Pretty neat so far.

Still working on Rollerdrome (PC/multi). It's very good, but I'm not so great at it. It still hasn't been in my pile long enough to qualify, unfortunately.

Thanks Hemidal!

Well, seeing as I am at Chapter 6 of 7 for Dave the Diver, I'll be calling this one next as my third pick for the month of June.

Dave the Diver (multi)

And Dave the Diver is done. Loved the game. Plenty of stuff to do, great humor, and fairly tight gameplay. There are definitely things I'd like to see improved or built upon in a hypothetical sequel, but I am quite satisfied with the game as is.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is done. 100% all collectibles, scans, quests. It will be on my GotY list.

I would like to add one more because the Dragon Age FOMO has me bad:

Dragon Age Inquisition

Going for another shortie! Adding Blaster Master Zero as my next pick. Gonna try and clear it before Shadow of the Erdtree drops tomorrow night

I have moved my copy of Deathnote (PS Vita) from the shelf on which my Vita games are stored to my bedside table. My Vita is also on the bedside table. I think something's going to happen with those two this week...

detroit20 wrote:

I have moved my copy of Deathnote (PS Vita) from the shelf on which my Vita games are stored to my bedside table. My Vita is also on the bedside table. I think something's going to happen with those two this week...

The shelf and bedside table are going to fight, you think?

Aaaand Master Blaster Zero is done. Got the good/true ending on my first try - apparently you just need to kill all the bosses and they are very handily marked on the map. Just in time to jump into Shadow of the Erdtree, too. No more picks from me this month. Will pick something once I've gotten through the Shadowlands.

detroit20 wrote:

I have moved my copy of Deathnote (PS Vita) from the shelf on which my Vita games are stored to my bedside table. My Vita is also on the bedside table. I think something's going to happen with those two this week...

Not to be "that guy" but which Deathnote game is this?

This month has been a major failure due to not doing much gaming at all (in part thanks to Euro 2024).

Finished:
Actual Sunlight (PC/multi) - Took about 90 minutes. It's basically a walking simulator about depression created in RPG Maker. It's a very personal story by Will O'Neill (also made Little Red Lie, Superliminal, and Guildmaster Story) about many of his own struggles, and I found an not insignificant amount of my own past (and sometimes present) thoughts represented in the narration.
When it was over, I was left feeling a bit "meh" about it, but listening to the Cane&Rinse episode on it increased my appreciation of Actual Sunlight a lot.

Made progress in:
Pandora's Tower - Finished tower 3 of 12, which is not an amount of progress I'm satisfied with...

Also played:
Rollerdrome - still stuck on the first semifinal stage, even after starting to apply some assists. Very challenging game...but there's something there that keeps me coming back in spite of the frustration.

Xenogears - started it on a whim and am liking it quite a bit. Except for the 3D areas that are zoomed in very closely; those are unpleasantly hard to navigate.

I hear you...

I dabbled in several games, made significant progress in none.

Such is life.

Stele wrote:

Still working on Chained Echoes on Switch (multi).

Finally got back into God of War: Ragnarök (PS5) this week as well, so maybe I can finally finish it.

I did play both games for another week or so after that original post. But alas, have not touched either in 10-14 days and did not finish. Maybe July...