Advanced Pile Removal Activated - Pile of Shame July 2024

So, playing three hefty games for the various quarterly clubs. It means I won't have much time to dedicate to any other games, but as a sweet little palate cleanser in between, I will declare Blaster Master Zero 2 (multi).

Here are my pics:

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria
Age of Wonders 4
Dragon Age Inquisition

Three for three as of a week ago! Still have some time left in the month, so might get some bonus completions in too.

Finished:

Pilgrims - A charming, slightly funny, and very short adventure game with that distinctive Amanita Design feel to it. Without any intelligible dialog, your main character traverses the small world, picks up three traveling companions, and fulfils their - and your - goals. As you accomplish their goals, they leave you one by one, just as they joined. Gameplay is trial- and error combine things with other things/people and see what happens. Some puzzles have multiple solutions, and can lead to humorous outcomes. There is no (intelligible) dialog yet it's very expressive, and there are no fail states, making this a great little game for kids - just like many of Amanita's other offerings.
A highlight:

Rollerdrome - An absolutely video-game-ass video game; it's rollerderby meets Tony Hawk. With guns.
And rocket launchers.
And walking tanks.
And it's great!
Except it becomes punishingly, crushingly hard no later than the semifinals.
You play Kara Hassan, a new competitor this Rollerdrome 2030 season, playing through the qualifying, quarter- and semifinal, as well as final rounds, doing tricks to refill your ammo, taking out all sorts of house players, and split-second dodging batons, rockets, sniper shots, flame throwers, mines, and lots of other deadly things. There is, of course, a story about an evil corporation going on in the background - it's fairly easy to ignore if you so choose.
Rollerdrome also features the splendid art style I first saw in Sable not two years ago, and it's gorgeous. The audio is spot on too. The game feels silky smooth and great controls (mostly - doing some tricks in specific spots can be frustrating) can make for a wonderful time.
Problem is, later on, you spend almost all of your time dodging and going into bullet time, because there are so many enemies in the map gunning for you, that there is ALWAYS something about to hit you.
After banging my head against the brick wall of the first semifinal map off and on for about two weeks, I gave in and used the reduced damage assist (and still almost died a few times).
Looking at the global steam achievements, only 18% of players even got to the semis, and less than 1 out of every 9 even finish the campaign.

There is a DLC campaign which ramps up the difficulty even more. No thanks.

The developer has unfortunately since been shuttered. A real shame, because Rollerdrome is pretty awesome except for the difficulty, and I would have loved to see what they do next.

LostWinds - This was not what I expected, when I tried it out to prepare to show my kids. I thought we were going to be playing a mostly standard, easy and cute platformer in which I push a button to jump. Instead, I control wind, and have to blow my partner all over the map, help him pull things out of the ground with a big gust, direct fire, levitate objects and launch them, and solve the mystery of what happened to the ancients and why Deo can't remember anything anymore.
It's charming, clearly made for the Wiimote (it was a Wiiware title originalls) but works with the mouse, short, and pretty unique.
It also has some control issues, which make it a slightly frustrating experience. No clue if the game worked better on Wii, but executing some of the moves with the mouse was often hit-or-miss. I'm pretty sure if I had tried to get my kids to try this out on their own, they would have given up quickly, solely because of the controls.

As it is, it was a decent way for me to spend just under 3 hours to get all achievements. I hear the sequel is much improved and meatier, so I'll likely give that a whirl sometime in the future.

Well, my month is over as I've only got tonight, then I'm flying out of town at 5AM on Tuesday. I have finished nothing, but some progress in both Elden Ring and Pikmin 4.

So far, Elden Ring has managed to tick me off with the boss of the Academy of Raya Lucaria so that I'm way less interested in playing it. Pikmin 4, on the other hand continues to charm, even more so than previous entries.