Did your pile become less of a mountain? - 2011 in review

I just beat Mass Effect 2. I need to replay the last mission since

Spoiler:

Zaeed died

, and there is new DLC next week, but I will probably wait on both of those and work on something else. Not sure what yet.

Portal 2 pre-ordered, cross that off the list. Amazon PS3 version with $20 gift card, $5 off the retail price, free release day shipping, and a free copy of the Steam version of the game for PC... well, no point in waiting.

Also crossed NBA 2k11 off my side goals list, as I finished up my My Player season last week and won the title. Might dabble in a 2nd season here and there, but for the most part it's complete. With all the online trophies there's no way I'm going to 100% it.

And although Killzone 3 wasn't on a side goals list, I did go back and finish up the achievements over the weekend for my 2nd platinum trophy.

Finally beat Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume on the DS.

However, I'm afraid I only do myself more harm. Today Amazon had some nice lightning deals, and I bought DeBlob 2 and Bulletstorm off of it. Even though this weekend I used what was left of a Visa gift card to grab Homefront.

Guys, I have a problem.

I want to play DA2 so badly, but am making myself beat Metro 2033 before I touch it. Metro 2033 is great, but I am very anxious to play DA2!

Added Brink to my possible 2011 purchases on the spreadsheet. Just heard about it and it sounds great.

Catch-All

SallyNasty wrote:

I want to play DA2 so badly, but am making myself beat Metro 2033 before I touch it. Metro 2033 is great, but I am very anxious to play DA2!

Yeah, I'm trying to force my way through Fable 3 first (though I'm permitting myself the side distraction of Homefront).

ccesarano wrote:
SallyNasty wrote:

I want to play DA2 so badly, but am making myself beat Metro 2033 before I touch it. Metro 2033 is great, but I am very anxious to play DA2!

Yeah, I'm trying to force my way through Fable 3 first (though I'm permitting myself the side distraction of Homefront).

I hope you are enjoying it! I loved Fable 3.

Gonna be honest, I feel like they went a step down after Fable 2.

Though I think the biggest issue with Fable is that it is the only franchise where I play the game more for the side quests than the story. Sure, the story is a sort of impetus to play, but wandering its world, finding Gremlins/Gnomes, grabbing keys and slaying thugs is more fun than whatever the story has planned.

The first one had the best story for the trilogy, Fable 2 had the best mechanics, and Fable 3...well, I like the gnomes.

Assassin's Creed 2 down. I'm feeling much better about my pile 'o' shame now. Some of the big titles are down and there is a sizeable dent in FFXIII.

I finished up Bioshock 2 last night, but I loved it so much that I bought both of its single-player DLC packs. One step forward, two half-steps back. Heck, I loved this game so much that I might try to jump into some multiplayer over the weekend.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I finished up Bioshock 2 last night, but I loved it so much that I bought both of its single-player DLC packs. One step forward, two half-steps back. Heck, I loved this game so much that I might try to jump into some multiplayer over the weekend.

Have to say I loved it also. I'm a big fan of the game. I tried multiplayer and didn't find anyone on but it wasn't a great time of day to be trying. Minerva's Den is supposed to be fantastic (I'm a little way in but got distracted by AC2) and I'm tempted to get the collector trials.

I just finished DeathSpank: Thongs of Virture yesterday. I needed something a little more mindless to play while catching up on podcasts, but I'll be back into Act 2 of DA2 today.

Added Steel Diver for the 3DS. Crossed off Homefront (that game really was short, but I kind of want to play it again for some achievements. Damn pile!)

Metro 2033 goes down! I still have a couple achievements left to go, but they are a bit buggy and I may just skip. Good game, and it was fun to play in russian.

A week ago I put Call of Juarez six feet under. The last time I played a western themed game was 2005's Gun, which I really enjoyed. It's a shame that so few games take place in this setting (no, I haven't played Red Dead yet), as Call of Juarez is yet another quality experience, despite a few flaws.

Let's get those out of the way first. Load times were several minutes long in DX10 mode; therefore I stayed with DX9 which looked pretty good in its own right. The character, Billy, uses a whip to attach to branches and other protrusions to swing around and climb/descend, but finding the "attach here" hotspot can be a pain, especially during chase scenes. A few sections truly are extremely long, such as one scene that tasks Billy with climbing up a mountain. Unfortunately, despite some wide open environments and many that look wide open, the game is extremely linear and often feels like a corridor shooter. Finally, even though it might just be my ineptitude, but stealth without killing seems to be too difficult to be a truly viable option in most sections that suggest its use.

Now on to the good stuff: The setting is beautifully captured and just feels right! There's a steady sense of tension which only resolves at the end in a gloriously violent display of vengeance. The main characters are well realized and their character and perceptions believably presented; it was a truly glorious treat to play the somewhat insane Reverend Ray, gunning down opponents while talking to himself and reciting fire-and-brimstone Bible verses while imagining him as Gul Dukat from Star Trek Deep Space 9, as they are both the same actor in very similar roles. The shooting is tight, guns overheat and have to be replaced, and the length is just about right overall. A few set pieces are really memorable and the story takes a few unexpected, but nice, turns. I clearly recommend this one!

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I also plowed through an unannounced pile game; Rygar: The Legendary Adventure on the PS2. It took about 6 hours and wasn't even close to a speed run - this is a short game. One can clearly see it as an inspiration for God of War, as it is similar in many ways such as the attach mechanics, powering up weapons and discovering new combos, a similar mythological setting, wide vistas and epic music, and some MASSIVE bosses. In fact, the boss named Typhon was quite disturbing to me (ffwd to 1:00). Numerous parts of the environment can and must be destroyed to find power-ups and secrets and Rygar feels very powerful thanks to some bass-y sound effects coupled with well done controller vibration. Considering its age, the game feels ahead of its time in these respects.

Sadly, there is another side to this coin. Although the environments are nicely varied, the standard enemies are not, and Rygar will be battling palette-swaps of the same four or five mob types through most of the game. The "script" is barely comprehensible jibberish; terrible even by gaming standards and the voice work tries hard to surpass the writing in awfulness. "I swear my victory to this feather!" - seriously? The other painful aspect of the game is the fixed camera. It attempts a cinematic style, but really just makes some sections - especially platforming ones - much harder than they should be. Enemies attack from off screen, distances and depth is hard to judge, and sometimes the angle is just really unfortunate. After an hour or so I became mostly used to it, but it could have been much better.

Play Rygar only if you already have it and have a few hours to kill. It certainly has its good points, but subsequent games such as God of War did most of them much better. FYI: the Wii version apparently changed Rygar's look, added a few new enemies, and included a new, reportedly worse, control scheme.

I am close to the end of Dragon Age: Origins with my warrior noble dwarf, or at least what I assume is the end:

Spoiler:

I started the fight against the Darkspawn in Denerim, however, I realized that I do not have enough poultices to realistically compete, so I need to re-load a save before going to Redcliffe go back and buy more Elfroot from the Dalish. The Landsmeet was quite interesting, I chose Alistair to fight Loghain and he won. However, I did not realize that Anora would not want to accept the marriage to Alistair when he just killed her father. Or maybe she was going to double-cross me regardless?

So after I complete it (which won't be complete because it says I only have played through 42% of the story), should I play Awakenings before playing Dragon Age 2?

I am also looking forward to getting Tiger Woods Masters through GameFly later this week.

The game that I am playing the most of however is working to fix my computer build. I get my cross-ship motherboard tonight and hopefully that will fix my problem, otherwise, I may have fried the CPU as well.

How do you all pick what to play next? I'm largely a one-game-at-a-time kind of guy, and I always have a hard time figuring out what to move onto once I've finished something.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

How do you all pick what to play next? I'm largely a one-game-at-a-time kind of guy, and I always have a hard time figuring out what to move onto once I've finished something.

I have a hard time as well. I try and think which games will I a) enjoy the most ii) be able to play the most x) which will my wife enjoy watching and 4) which will i most realistically be able to get the most achievements on:).

I am having a very hard time deciding what to play for next month. I am thinking Viva Pinata.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

How do you all pick what to play next? I'm largely a one-game-at-a-time kind of guy, and I always have a hard time figuring out what to move onto once I've finished something.

Whatever strikes my fancy. Like if I'm in the mood for an FPS or RTS (gerne) or something in a specific setting or visual style, or maybe sometimes I want something of a bit more mental challenge or relaxation.

Or you could look at what you've been sitting on for a really long time and pick that, especially if you played some and really enjoyed it.

I advise against playing games that have sequels already or soon to be released, for financial reasons.

In short, there's not a big formula about it, except the sequel thing. That's why I'm only now getting to Dead Space. I'm also going to have to either hurry up and get and finished Uncharted 2, or wait until some time after Uncharted 3 is released.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

How do you all pick what to play next? I'm largely a one-game-at-a-time kind of guy, and I always have a hard time figuring out what to move onto once I've finished something.

On those occasions when I can't just look at the list and choose, I use the "Fortune Cookie" feature of Backloggery, which is basically a choose at random, given a set of criteria (which I think defaults to stuff you haven't beaten, on all systems you own)

Apollo0507 wrote:

So after I complete it (which won't be complete because it says I only have played through 42% of the story), should I play Awakenings before playing Dragon Age 2?

Yeah. Awakenings features one of the party members from DA2. I think you definitely want to play it first. I'm still working on it myself before getting DA2.

Awakenings is only a 12-15hr jaunt vs Origins itself, so it's not too big of a hold-up prior to #2.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

How do you all pick what to play next? I'm largely a one-game-at-a-time kind of guy, and I always have a hard time figuring out what to move onto once I've finished something.

I like to try and keep my blog updated, so partly "how fast can I beat this?"

Which is difficult now that I want to start Dragon Age 2 but still need to complete Fable 3, and if I work through both of those then by time I'm finished it'll be May and the next big release will be here (that or I'll get my tax refund and get a PS3 and Portal 2, which will only do me so many more worries).

I typically go at a DS game and a console game at a time, though right now I'm bouncing back and forth between Pokemon and whatever else is on the plate.

After nearly 9 years, I finally saw the credits of the flawed gem, Divine Divinity.

Impressions here in the March pile thread:
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/107670?page=3#comment-1804936

Updated the forum topic with the link to Hemidal's thread for this month.

I had a shocking month myself for pile progression, loss of hearing in my right ear and breaking of my elbow aside, I added a metric crap tonne of titles* to the pile. I'm blaming it on an attempt to create a post purchase euphoria to counteract the dire state of affairs that was March.

I'll post back later with the damage, I just need to make a comprehensive list (yes, it was that bad).

*[size=6] slight exageration, but more than 5, maybe even approaching 10[/size]

m0nk3yboy wrote:

Updated the forum topic with the link to Hemidal's thread for this month.

I had a shocking month myself for pile progression, loss of hearing in my right ear and breaking of my elbow aside, I added a metric crap tonne of titles* to the pile. I'm blaming it on an attempt to create a post purchase euphoria to counteract the dire state of affairs that was March.

I'll post back later with the damage, I just need to make a comprehensive list (yes, it was that bad).

*[size=6] slight exageration, but more than 5, maybe even approaching 10[/size]

Sorry to hear about the loss of hearing. It is permanent?

There are times when adding to the games you have in stock is a good moral booster. I actually find I fluctuate between two states: either I'm feeling guilty about having way too many games in my 'to play' pile or I'm feeling unsettled because I don't have enough games in my 'to play' pile.

I'm going to set up base camp on the lower slopes of my pile, and play some multiplayer for a while, before making a final push for the summit.

Higgledy wrote:

Sorry to hear about the loss of hearing. It is permanent?

Looks like it's going to be.

I had a test 8 weeks ago, and I had lost all high range, and most of my mid range in the right ear. I thought it was getting better, but when I went back at the end of last week, the results were the same.

Apparently there are two hearing scale tests. One measures actually frequency range, and that's the one that's cactus. There is a secondary test, which is called a discriminatory test. This measures how the ear is actually processing the garbled mess it's receiving. The fact that my 'understanding' of the sounds going into that ear is appearing to get better, and the fact that I still have that annoying constant ringing in my ear (coupled with intermittent secondary muscle twitches in the ear, which sound like cracked bamboo being hit against a hard surface) means the 'actual processing of what I'm hearing' may still get better.

Could be that this doesn't settle down for the better part of the next 12 months. As annoying as the constant ringing is, as long as it's there, the brain is still doing it's best to reconnect, and reestablish ways of sorting out the signals it's receiving.

They are sending me to see if a hearing aid will help in the short term, but the specialist seemed to think at present, I may not be the best candidate for one, maybe in 12 months time, but right now, it may just make it all too noisey, and might stop some of the good repairative work the brain is doing by itself.

Lucky me, this only happens to 1 in 10,000 people, shame I can't get those odds on the lottery!

OK, I'm suffering from gamer's block and I'm not sure what I should play next.

Instead of picking a game, I instead pulled the big box out of the back of the closet and cataloged everything in it.

Allow me to present The Pile.

A lot of the games on that list I have played. A lot I have not. A few I probably can't; I only have them on 5 1/4 inch floppy and when was the last time you saw one of those.

But anyway, I have decided to crowdsource my pile for this month. Look at the document, look at the games I haven't played and tell me which ones need to move to the top of the pile. And thanks.

tanstaafl wrote:

Allow me to present The Pile.

I don't have a suggestion yet. But I am shocked that all the Wing Commanders are there, but neither Freespace 1 or 2, nor X-Wing, TIE Fighter, XvsTIE and XWA. Your space jockey training is only half complete. Buy and play them. The XW95 and TIE95 versions still work in Win7. And Freespace Open I believe it was still has versions of those games updated and working in Win7 last I tried.

You have to realize that this is the list of games for which I have the actual disc still lying around. I've played both X-Wing and Tie Fighter but atm I couldn't tell you where they are.

As for Freespace I always heard that it was just Descent in space and I was never a fan of Descent so I never really looked at them. That said, I think I got a free copy once with a video card or something but, again, I have no idea where it might be.

I know I dumped a box of old games about 10 years ago when I moved (I know I got rid of all my old Mac games then) so I know I lost some stuff then.