There's Plenty of Pile for Everyone

I sort of burned out on Strong Bad but will keep plugging away at it, and my chances of finishing Choas Rings fell to near zero when I got a fancy new non-iOS phone, but Deadly Premonition continues to be one of the best games I've played in years. Greenvale has to be the best-realized video game space I've ever played in, and I'm surprised to discover myself actually pushing on through the game for the story.

Halo REACH.

Tales of Monkey Island: Episode 1 is done. I definitely enjoyed the beginning, though there was one puzzle towards the end that frustrated me, as I had a somewhat hard time distinguishing one of the sounds. Not that big a deal, though. I'll try the rest later, but for now, I'm working on Broken Sword I from the Steam sale. Since there's a progress bar when you save, I know that I'm 8% done. So far, it's very good, though there was one somewhat annoying puzzle. The odds that I'll finish it this month are pretty much zero, but I'll just put it on next month's list.

billt721 wrote:

Finished up Fallout. At multiple points during the game I was very tempted to revert to a prior save to see how I could have done things a bit differently. After doing so once or twice, I decided I'd get lost replaying every section if I did that and never finish the game. So I beat it, and will be going back at some point to play a completely different character. Overall - a great game and I'm disappointed that it took me this long to get through it.

A common statement from most of us as we discover old titles we should have played, but ultimately, that is what this thread is for. Committing to giving time to those games we want need to play before we get old and our controllers don't work anymore.

I might make Fallout next month's game, but I'm still messing around in Dragon Age Origins. I forgot how much you can lose yourself in a good Bioware gaming experience.

Finished up Fallout. At multiple points during the game I was very tempted to revert to a prior save to see how I could have done things a bit differently. After doing so once or twice, I decided I'd get lost replaying every section if I did that and never finish the game. So I beat it, and will be going back at some point to play a completely different character. Overall - a great game and I'm disappointed that it took me this long to get through it.

Edit: Next up .... I think I'll tackle the Indiana Jones point-and-click adventures. I know that Fate of Atlantis is generally regarded as a much better game, but if I'm going to play them both I might as well start with the earlier (and worse) of the two, so it'll be The Last Crusade up first. I'm pretty sure these two games will carry over into next month unless they're really, really short.

Woohoo! Assassin's Creed 2 in the bag. Good game. Slightly too long, but good game.

This is the first game I've finished in forever!

Polished off some undeclared DLC this month:

Mass Effect 2's "Overlord" and "Lair of the Shadow Broker" went down in flames on Sunday, and Fallout 3's "Broken Steel" is done. Both of those games, I think are officially retired to the shelf -- that is, unless decide to get the remaining 10 cheevos in Fallout 3, but that's for way, way down the road.

No obligation to add me to the OP, but this is also me saying I'm going to be back as a regular and declaring come February, as per the 12-month thread plan.

I figure I'm about 30 minutes from finishing Splinter Cell:Conviction. I've been playing while staying in the hotel. I'm going to try and knock that out before the end of the month as well.

3 games in one month, boo-yah! Well, almost.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game (PC) has fallen. Besides the two sections I was stuck on, I had fun. It's pretty decent and I had a few laugh out loud moments.

Now I'm playing Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS).

I've been collecting orbs in Crackdown 2 this week, but my co-op buddy hasn't been on much, so I haven't progressed the story stuff. However, I want to knock it out this month (i.e. this weekend), so I can move on to other stuff; I'll go back and replay some stuff in co-op later. My goal is to enable all Absorption Units, and detonate all Beacons, plus whatever end-game stuff there is after that. I'll probably do some of the Tactical Locations and Freak Breaches, plus some races and collect more orbs, but those are secondary.

No way am I getting Dragon Age: Origins finished in the next two days, but that's OK, I'm really enjoying it! May tackle one or two XBLA games along side it for next month, just to keep the gamerscore ticking along...

Just checking in...I'm || close to finishing Dragon Age: Origins. I'm in Denerim, in Fort Drakon, nothin' standing between me and the credits except...one pissed off Dragon.

I may be here a couple of days.

I'm calling Just Cause 2 done. It gets f*ckin' terrible toward the end and clearing random villages got pretty boring a while ago.

DA:Origins is a REALLY good play. Haven't seen the credits roll, but I have managed to polish off Return to Ostagar, and Warden's Keep out of the plethora of DLC I have sitting on my HD, so I'm happy to be moving in the right direction with this one.

I'm loving the idle banter between my party members, reminds me so much of the fun I had listening to the same style of idle chatter in KOTOR. Really looking forward to DA:O 2 now in March (although my pile progress isn't).

iaintgotnopants wrote:

I'm calling Just Cause 2 done. It gets f*ckin' terrible toward the end and clearing random villages got pretty boring a while ago.

I want to go jump back in the game and find new ways to blow crap up after reading that in an indirect way just to 'prove you wrong' [size=2]in my head[/size].

mateo wrote:

Just checking in...I'm || close to finishing Dragon Age: Origins. I'm in Denerim, in Fort Drakon, nothin' standing between me and the credits except...one pissed off Dragon.

I may be here a couple of days. :)

That's only another 12 hours or so, maybe less. Enjoy it

trueheart78 wrote:
mateo wrote:

Just checking in...I'm || close to finishing Dragon Age: Origins. I'm in Denerim, in Fort Drakon, nothin' standing between me and the credits except...one pissed off Dragon.

I may be here a couple of days. :)

That's only another 12 hours or so, maybe less. Enjoy it :)

Very funny!

Actually, just finished it. Got the ArchDaemon down on the 3rd try. Not proud of how I did it, though-took advantage of a bug. Oh well, I saw the credits, and that's what matters.

Hemidal, market DA:Origins done!

Well, as done as it can be. Want to go back and replay as a caster!

mrtomaytohead wrote:
iaintgotnopants wrote:

I'm calling Just Cause 2 done. It gets f*ckin' terrible toward the end and clearing random villages got pretty boring a while ago.

I want to go jump back in the game and find new ways to blow crap up after reading that in an indirect way just to 'prove you wrong' [size=2]in my head[/size]. :P

There's use a gun, grenade, grenade launcher, rocket launcher, car, helicopter (for 10 seconds until the next helicopter comes and you have to deal with it), fighter jet (if you want to be really bored since you'll fly out to turn around more than you'll be shooting) and triggered explosives. In the end the only fun way to clear a village was to put triggered explosives on everything and blow 'em up as you walk out of town. But, even that starts to get boring after a dozen or so times.

If I missed any, maybe I'll jump in again to give it a try but my save is in the middle of (I think) the second-to-last mission where I have to get to a button in the middle of a big dome with about 60 guys shooting machine guns at me with perfect aim. And, all the guys have to be dead before I can press the button because it's a quick time event that fails if you get shot once but the guys seem to respawn constantly. Not my idea of fun.

Hmmmm.... two evenings, 5 chapters of Dead Space: Extraction left.... this is going to be tight, but might be doable.

AndrewA wrote:

Hmmmm.... two evenings, 5 chapters of Dead Space: Extraction left.... this is going to be tight, but might be doable.

The last chapter is really, really short.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
AndrewA wrote:

Hmmmm.... two evenings, 5 chapters of Dead Space: Extraction left.... this is going to be tight, but might be doable.

The last chapter is really, really short.

That's a good thing, because I snuck in chapter 5 this afternoon and had all sorts of trouble with the boss. The bloody thing killed me a good 3 or 4 times before I figured all phases of it out and was able to execute properly.

This game really rewards smart weapon choice.... far moreso than the main game ever did.

I managed to knock off a bonus pile game in the Undead Nightmare pack, which I finished 100%ing this evening. I felt like a little bit of a grind by the end, mostly because of the 100%, but it was a joy to get back in the RDR world. Killing zombies and riding unicorns was just gravy.

iaintgotnopants wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:
iaintgotnopants wrote:

I'm calling Just Cause 2 done. It gets f*ckin' terrible toward the end and clearing random villages got pretty boring a while ago.

I want to go jump back in the game and find new ways to blow crap up after reading that in an indirect way just to 'prove you wrong' [size=2]in my head[/size]. :P

There's use a gun, grenade, grenade launcher, rocket launcher, car, helicopter (for 10 seconds until the next helicopter comes and you have to deal with it), fighter jet (if you want to be really bored since you'll fly out to turn around more than you'll be shooting) and triggered explosives. In the end the only fun way to clear a village was to put triggered explosives on everything and blow 'em up as you walk out of town. But, even that starts to get boring after a dozen or so times.

If I missed any, maybe I'll jump in again to give it a try but my save is in the middle of (I think) the second-to-last mission where I have to get to a button in the middle of a big dome with about 60 guys shooting machine guns at me with perfect aim. And, all the guys have to be dead before I can press the button because it's a quick time event that fails if you get shot once but the guys seem to respawn constantly. Not my idea of fun.

Grappling hook makes guns, cars and helicopters way more interesting to kill with.:P Just look at the achievement list for some hints. That last missions was a bit annoying, but I seem to remember there being a sort of trick to clearing them out of the room. Also, the game's not perfect and I can see it becoming dull to some, so like I implied, I would just be doing it for my own benefit to load my save up.

And coming in just under the wire for January, Red Faction: Guerrilla falls. I was getting really annoyed at the way their save points worked by the end of the game (do I have to respawn completely on the opposite side of the map from the mission I'm trying to complete), there were a few wtf? moments in the plot (So I shoot my way through the entire marauder camp, killing dozens of them and destroying half the camp in order to reach their leader and suddenly I have someone with me and they are suddenly willing to talk to me? And suddenly the marauders (who until this point have been at best a cross between sandpeople and something out of The Road Warrior) are high-tech engineers who can repair and operate a mass driver?) and the big bad that has been threatening almost the entire game is defeated in a cutscene.

So yeah. Fun but I can't see myself revisiting it anytime soon.

AndrewA wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:
AndrewA wrote:

Hmmmm.... two evenings, 5 chapters of Dead Space: Extraction left.... this is going to be tight, but might be doable.

The last chapter is really, really short.

That's a good thing, because I snuck in chapter 5 this afternoon and had all sorts of trouble with the boss. The bloody thing killed me a good 3 or 4 times before I figured all phases of it out and was able to execute properly.

This game really rewards smart weapon choice.... far moreso than the main game ever did.

That boss took me a couple of tries, too. It really did come down to having the right set of weapons to deal with its different phases. I went in there decked out with all the wrong things and got my skin handed to me.

In some ways, I actually liked Dead Space Extraction more than Dead Space itself. At the very least, I found the characters to be better modeled, better written, and more engaging than their HD counterparts.

I'm really interested to see what the Extraction studio did in the new GoldenEye.

Splinter Cell: Conviction falls with 4 hours to spare. All in all, a very productive January for me. I should be able to get the new thread up some time tomorrow.

Dead Space: Extraction done with 3 hours left on the clock. Holy crap. Just. Holy crap. What a great prequel.... it really fleshes out the back story, and it was awesome seeing how the Ishimura came to be in the state it was in when Issac's story began.

The light gun/on rails game play fit really well, and led to a different type of scare... more like watching a horror movie when you just want to yell at the screen "TURN AROUND, GODDAMNIT, IT'S BEHIND YOU!!!".

Also, HUGE kudos to the folks who put together the "bonus" comics that you unlock as you complete story mode.... though the artwork was rudimentary, they were very well written and superbly voiced.

Crackdown 2 is done. I did all the Absorption Units, Beacons and Tactical Locations, and a bunch of the side stuff. I had to knock the difficulty down to beat the finale, since it was just too hard solo; it was clearly balanced for at least 2 players, and there are no mid-finale checkpoints. They hinted at some story -- mostly with audio logs, which is kind of lazy at this point, but they were done well enough I guess -- but they never went anywhere with it really, which is kind of a shame. Not that story is why one plays Crackdown, but it would still be nice. The ending was also glaringly obvious if you played the first one.

I'm sure I'll go back to it to collect more orbs, audio logs and races, and maybe some of the co-op achievements, but it's off the list for now. Time to move on to other stuff.

End of the month check-in: I'm 60-something percent through Secret of Monkey Island. I'll hopefully finish it up in the next week or so.

I made decent progress on PN 03 and enjoyed what I played, but things were busy with lots of company in January; hence, I'll have to carry it over. I know you're all so disappointed in me.