Romancing the Pile

Finished! And a great, charming little game it was.

I'm not sure what game's up next.

I'll sign up for this since my New Year's resolution is to finish the games I have before buying new ones. Hopefully putting it down in writing will help.

Put me down for Skate, Fable 2 and Call of Duty World at War. I'll probably also throw some Fallout 3 into the mix but I doubt I'll finish it. I want to take my time exploring the Capital Wasteland and really savor the experience. As well, I may hit 30 with my main toon in WAR since I need to get in there and do the new live events.

In terms of Skate, I've almost finished/hit a wall with that game. Not sure how much more progress I'll be able to make in that one. The challenges where you have to perform a specific trick to a specific grind are killing me. I may start Skate 2 before the month is out, who knows.

So last night around 6 I hopped in bed with my DS and FFIV, and stuck The Office on my 360 via Netflix.

The reason this game sits on my backlog, untouched since September, is a Monster-in-a-box in the last dungeon that contains a Red Dragon. I spent probably 2 hours getting to that point in the dungeon (not running from fights, getting 100% map completion) and this thing murdered me.

The same exact thing happened last night. Played from like 6-8:30. Same dragon. Lost like 4 levels I'd gotten, too. I picked two really hard games for the pile.

Worked out the display bugs on BG&E mostly. I think I'm past the tutorial stages, at least.

I've wimped out and added World of Goo on the PC to my list. I just started it up today. I think three games should be the max on the list at any time.

Also -- Okami does not end. Ever. I thought I saw the ending within sight twice and it lied to me!

Vrikk wrote:

Also -- Okami does not end. Ever. I thought I saw the ending within sight twice and it lied to me!

This is why I stopped playing it. I wrote a little bit about it here: Games That Are Too Long. I eventually started to feel strung along and couldn't muster the energy to play through to another false ending.

Clemenstation wrote:
Hemidal wrote:
CptGlanton wrote:

I'm jumping into Assassin's Creed right now, for real, and on my new Panny plasma, too. It looks so, so good, and the gameplay feels tight. I'm absolutely certain that all the "so repetitive" complaints will be justified, but right now the game feels great and I'm kicking myself for leaving it behind.

Word to the wise, play one target then walk away for the evening. I found the game to be a whole lot of fun, but going after 2-3 targets in a row really exposes the flaws, while a single target with a break masks them fairly well.

Seconded! The game really segments itself quite well... each section of the city has a bunch of mini missions (the eavesdropping and pickpocketing and such), and then the main assassination. I did an assassination per day while I was playing, and found the game to be pretty worthwhile.

Of course, once you're done killin', it's flag collecting time which is a whole different story...

I have been avoiding extending sessions and I still dig Assassin's Creed, although at the end of this last mission, my overlord warned me that "next time the guards will be more attentive toward you." That sounded ominous; I can't say it makes sense that walking slowly diverts guards' attention, even though I'm wearing an armory outside my robes.

Right now, I feel good with my approach to collecting flags. If I see it, I grab it. I never look for them though. It's not going to make me go back and find a random number to advance the story, is it? Cause that would move the game from the Pile to the Firepit.

CptGlanton wrote:

It's not going to make me go back and find a random number to advance the story, is it? Cause that would move the game from the Pile to the Firepit.

Nope, Flags are optional. I don't think I ever really had an issue with guards in town either. I pretty much ran around. The only time you really need to slow down is when you have to sneak in with a group somewhere or get back to normal after alerting some guards.

-sigh-

Add Abe's Oddysee to my list, too. I hate when I get on a platforming binge.

Vrikk wrote:

-sigh-

Add Abe's Oddysee to my list, too. I hate when I get on a platforming binge.

Updated, check under Multi.

Put me down for Valkyria Chronicles as well. I don't know how long this game is, so it may be unrealistic for me to complete it, but I pulled it out again and got completely addicted.

Put me down for Mass Effect, I got a Circuit City gift card for a late X-mas present, and all the games were 20% off due to them closing, so it was only $16.

ColdForged wrote:

MGS4!

Done! Wow, after all that...

Major Spoiler wrote:

[color=white]Snake blows his brains out.[/color]

I suppose I should have seen it coming, but I didn't.

Moving on to... Mass Effect 360!

EDIT:

Of course, after investigating further on the Wikipedia I see that

Major Spoiler wrote:

[color=white]He doesn't kill himself after all. I killed it right when the credits rolled, thinking that was it. And now I can't see it because the disc is sealed up in its GameFly pouch ready to ship. Damn![/color]

You can probably find the ending on Youtube

SocialChameleon wrote:

I'm gonna tackle Jade Empire on my Xboxen this month.

Done!

Sign me up for Company of Heroes if you will, please. I'll be dedicated to this RTS gem at least until I find out yet again I'm not suited for these kind of games

All right, I forgot to do a pick of the pile. There's one game with the most number of players, but I think I've made it a pick before. Only problem is I can't find the thread. So, for now, I'm going to make Mass Effect the pick of the pile, but if someone can get me the thread where it was before, I'll change it.

I really need to start keeping notes on this stuff.

I finished Pathologic. Well, I finished it with one character. There are 3 characters, all with their own plotlines that take place over 12 days. And those are 12 LONG days. I definitely consider the one playthrough a completion.

I can't say I recommend this game to anyone. The combat is terrible, the translation is brutal, and you tend to walk around town at a snails pace, which is rough for a game which mostly asks you to walk around town and talk to people.

It kept me going on sheer atmosphere and plot alone. I think the comparison to a David Lynch movie is pretty accurate - this is definitely the Mulholland Drive of video games.

I'm happy I experienced it, but I'm oh so happy to be done with it.

Dysplastic wrote:

I finished Pathologic. Well, I finished it with one character. There are 3 characters, all with their own plotlines that take place over 12 days. And those are 12 LONG days. I definitely consider the one playthrough a completion.

I can't say I recommend this game to anyone. The combat is terrible, the translation is brutal, and you tend to walk around town at a snails pace, which is rough for a game which mostly asks you to walk around town and talk to people.

It kept me going on sheer atmosphere and plot alone. I think the comparison to a David Lynch movie is pretty accurate - this is definitely the Mulholland Drive of video games.

I'm happy I experienced it, but I'm oh so happy to be done with it.

You know, you might have just sold me on this game. It sounds fascinating.

Latrine wrote:

You can probably find the ending on Youtube

And did, thanks. I should have thought of that.

adam.greenbrier wrote:
Dysplastic wrote:

I finished Pathologic. Well, I finished it with one character. There are 3 characters, all with their own plotlines that take place over 12 days. And those are 12 LONG days. I definitely consider the one playthrough a completion.

I can't say I recommend this game to anyone. The combat is terrible, the translation is brutal, and you tend to walk around town at a snails pace, which is rough for a game which mostly asks you to walk around town and talk to people.

It kept me going on sheer atmosphere and plot alone. I think the comparison to a David Lynch movie is pretty accurate - this is definitely the Mulholland Drive of video games.

I'm happy I experienced it, but I'm oh so happy to be done with it.

You know, you might have just sold me on this game. It sounds fascinating.

Every description I read of Pathologic includes language telling me not to play it -- that it's a terrible game -- yet every description ends up making me want to play it more.

World of Goo falls! Okami... eh, not so much. Not started Sly Cooper yet either.

wordsmythe wrote:

Every description I read of Pathologic includes language telling me not to play it -- that it's a terrible game -- yet every description ends up making me want to play it more.

Then play it. We are all fascinated by it for the same reason - but in the end you will see what I was talking about and make the same conclusion. I'm not even sure I'm ready to call it a game - because the "gamey" parts are what make it terrible, and the "non-gamey" parts are what make it fantastic.

I just can't recommend it to anyone, because I don't want to be responsible for what happens to you when you play it. Enter at your own risk. If you do decide to go for it, however, I'd definitely reccomend using the walkthrough that some fans developed (I think you can find it in the pathologic community forums) if you're ever confused. Between poor translation and bad quest implementation, you'll often find yourself with only a vague idea as to what to do next, and it's pretty frustrating to walk all the way across town only to get to the wrong place.

Dysplastic wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

Every description I read of Pathologic includes language telling me not to play it -- that it's a terrible game -- yet every description ends up making me want to play it more.

Then play it. We are all fascinated by it for the same reason - but in the end you will see what I was talking about and make the same conclusion. I'm not even sure I'm ready to call it a game - because the "gamey" parts are what make it terrible, and the "non-gamey" parts are what make it fantastic.

I just can't recommend it to anyone, because I don't want to be responsible for what happens to you when you play it. Enter at your own risk. If you do decide to go for it, however, I'd definitely reccomend using the walkthrough that some fans developed (I think you can find it in the pathologic community forums) if you're ever confused. Between poor translation and bad quest implementation, you'll often find yourself with only a vague idea as to what to do next, and it's pretty frustrating to walk all the way across town only to get to the wrong place.

Well, GamersGate has it for $14.99, so there's a pretty good chance that I'll pick it up. As it's a PC game, I don't know when I'll have a chance to play it, but I'm looking forward to it.

Primal just (finally) fell. The ending was surprisingly brief...

A very Ico-like game. I appreciated its atmosphere, aesthetics, story and voicework. The puzzles were rarely too difficult (and if I did get stuck, it's because I forgot that I had a rope...which is used about once every 3-4 hours on average - you get it in the first chapter, but only REALLY use it in the final one).

The primary weakness of the game is the same one that nearly every review cites - the combat. It looks pretty, is rarely overly difficult, and it is not the focus of the game, but it does occur frequently enough. Its main flaw is simply that, although there is some reward for fine-tuned button pressing, it is almost as effective to just button-mash your way through most encounters; especially the early ones. The other weakness are several smaller bugs resulting in an invincible enemy, another getting stuck in a wall, your character clipping through the level, and voice clips getting stuck in cutscenes. Luckily these can be replayed in the bonus menu.

There are several oddities in the levels, such as why the controls to the water purification machines - the only thing allowing the underwater Undine race to survive - are located ABOVE the surface of the water!

Primal (2003), also does one amazing thing which makes me wonder why other console games are incapable of doing the same - it allows the player to save anywhere (except in boss fights), and restores all changes to a level when loading a game. All this in less than 400kb per save.

Overall, I'm glad I played it, can understand why Sony hyped it so much in 2003 (although they misrepresented it as an action game), and had a good, albeit longer-than-expected time with it.

Oh, and as I've mentioned multiple times, having G'Kar's voice (of Babylon 5) as your sidekick, and your main character the voice of Callisto (from Xena the Warrior Princess) is pretty cool

I loved Primal - it's one of the few games I finished. I loved the atmosphere, the different worlds, and the voice acting was indeed superb. The combat wasn't great, but I didn't suffer from any of the other bugs you mentioned. All the same - grats on finishing it!

Right...Finished up Broken Sword 4. In the end I never bothered counting the number of times I needed a walkthrough, but there were quite a few (mostly not due to puzzles so much as battling with the games design)

- Good Points

The character of George is as good as ever (and well acted)
Some really good dialogue in places (The bits with George pretending to be a health inspector is laugh out loud funny in places).

- Bad Points

Everyone OTHER than George has pretty dire acting with a LOT of classic stereotypes.
Dull, dull, dull environments (basically everything is a near-empty series of square boxes, with differing textures)
No gamma correction option and plenty of really dark areas to explore
Rubbish character animation..I mean REALLY bad
As a result, all the "action" scenes look utterly ridiculous, with everyone standing around like a mannequin
REALLY over-uses the "distract X to steal Y" type of puzzle. There's practically AT LEAST one in every scene
The finale contains a ridiculous number of Deus Ex Machina events, with various bit part characters suddenly turning up out of the blue to rescue George.

And a whole lot more stuff...basically one to avoid really. A bit disappointing. Definitely one series that has not benefited at all from the jump to 3 dimensions.

Now then...let's see if Mr Holmes can offer a more entertaining adventure...

Died against the last boss in Final Fantasy IV. They were not joking when they said this game would be harder than the original SNES cart. I was level 62 when I beat it the, I was 77 when I lost yesterday.

I'm up to 81-80 now, gonna see if that helps, maybe tonight in bed. Wish me luck.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Died against the last boss in Final Fantasy IV. They were not joking when they said this game would be harder than the original SNES cart. I was level 62 when I beat it the, I was 77 when I lost yesterday.

I'm up to 81-80 now, gonna see if that helps, maybe tonight in bed. Wish me luck.

Zemus... or ZEROMUS??

Clemenstation wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

Died against the last boss in Final Fantasy IV. They were not joking when they said this game would be harder than the original SNES cart. I was level 62 when I beat it the, I was 77 when I lost yesterday.

I'm up to 81-80 now, gonna see if that helps, maybe tonight in bed. Wish me luck.

Zemus... or ZEROMUS??

Zeromus. I don't recall if your party fights Zemus in the SNES version, but in this one FuSoYa and Golbez fight Zemus, then get their asses kicked and you have to clean up the Zeromus mess.

Anyway, I beat that early Wednesday morning, around 7am. Woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. The ending was lovely. Amazing what 5 levels can do for you.

On to Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.